IT'S FLEA TIME IN THE CITY

Last week we  were told of the arrival of a warm and large yellow disc in the sky. Fearing the unknown, we all stayed indoors until we could be sure of the orb's intentions. It seems to have retreated now, but to be sure, we are all still eyeing the sky suspiciously. Someone suggested that we make a ladder so we can confront it. If you should see it, our advice is to immediately destroy all your clothes (to counter its powers of heat) and then shout loudly at it until it goes away. Stay vigilant, dear readers.

The sun brings out all manner of creepy crawlies and one of them is the dreaded Flea.
Unappealing little creatures  aren't they? but its a good idea to get rid of them as soon as you can.  One flea can lay 1,000 eggs and  before you know it, you have 30,000 of them invading your space.Then it becomes the canine version of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Is your dog scratching away, making you feel itchy in the process.  It might be a good idea to run your fingers through its fur to check for flea eggs.  These feel like grits of sand under your fingers. If it is a black piece of grit and goes bloody when you squish it, then its for sure a flea egg.  If you want to be 100% sure that you think your dog may be flea-ridden, then stand it on something white, run a comb through the fur and the residue will fall onto the white surface.  Lots of black bits will definitely be flea eggs.

First thing to do is give your dog a good bath with a flea shampoo (Bob Martins), that you can get from the supermarket or pet shop. Then cut open a pipette of Advantage, Frontline or other flea repellent, part the hair and run the liquid along the dog's neck to the base of the tail.   After that, wash the dog's bedding. Get a can of Bob Martin's home spray flea repellent and spray that along the skirting boards of your home.  That's where they like to live. Kill them off before they can hitch a lift on a hot, furry passing body.

As a form of maintenance,  I always dab some Lavender oil onto my dog's back once a week. Fleas hate the smell and that keeps them at bay.  Sprinkle it on the bedding as well. You can get small bottles of Lavender oil from the chemist or supermarkets. Another effective repellent is garlic powder (from the herbs and spices section in the supermarket), sprinkled on your dogs food.  Your dog may smell like a shish kebab but its better that than an itchy dog.

Eeuw! just writing about it is making me itchy; Im sure you are beginning to itch reading this and before long, we will all be itching.

Watching the cute little goats in Regent's Park Zoo every morning, I thought you would like to see a compilation video of some shouty ones. They don't all plaintively go "baa".

This and that ........ Dogs need to sniff the ground; it's how they keep abreast of current events. The ground is a giant dog newspaper, containing all kinds of late-breaking dog news items, which, if they are especially urgent, are often continued into the next garden, street, tree and lamp post.

That's about it for this month.  Enjoy Easter and don't gorge on too much chocolate.

Dawn (".")