Little Livestock

Dog Blog Post #512: Today's Daily Dog Challenge should have been a piece of cake...

"#18. Action - Capture a photo of your dog in action today."

... After all, Zachary's obsession with The Lacrosee Ball is practically legendary (at least on this blog) and if all else failed, there was always bitey-face.

What could go wrong?

Well, for starters, the day dawned grey and gloomy. The yard was damp and muddy. And due to a sudden infiltration of fleas (yes, fleas) I was spending the day washing just about everything that I could cram into the washer.

Did I mention the fleas?

I can't remember the last time I even saw a flea on the boys. I'm sure I've never seen one on Henry, and as I don't remember trying to goo two dogs at once, I'm betting that Zachary has never had one either.

Until this week.

As I do have vague recollections of Beau's bramble fur being greasy at some point, we'll say it's been at least 3.5 years and more likely 4-5 since little livestock had set up camp around here.

Until this week.

Anyway - due to those fleas, I was doing lots of laundry, and vacuuming, and trying to explain to Henry that the goo I put on him Friday morning (and the reason he was temporarily banned from the bedroom) was actually a good thing and would make the itches go away.

Poor Henry. He was a truly miserable dog two days ago (pre-goo) with his ears held low and his paw sadly going itchy-itchy-itchy on his now-irritated belly.

The best we can come up with is that neighbor's came over, stood in the middle of the yard three days ago, and sneezed. A billion fleas flew off her and found themselves in the grass. Shortly thereafter, an unsuspecting Zachary came along and lay on them. Soon after that, I noticed Zachary going itchy-itchy-itchy on his belly.

Over the next few hours I culled a dozen fleas from his burgeoning herd, but clearly manual depredation wasn't going to cut it. I'd clear them all off, send the dogs out to take care of business, and by the time he came back the bus would be full again...

... and then they spread to Henry. And while Zachary was fairly stoic, Henry was most definitely not. In fact, if you ignore the Evil Jingle Collar, Henry spent most of the next day looking a lot like this...

Nasty fleas

... ah well, too late to shorten the tale, but I am happy to report that Frontline Plus once again saved the day, the boys are happy and bouncy and appear to be livestock free, and my house hasn't been this clean, all at once, in years.

Scavenge Challenge: Montage of three or four pictures

Editor's Note: The sun did eventually emerge, and I chanced a few tosses down flea-alley to get the required shots. Zachary promptly failed home re-entry flea-check, but the lone infiltrator was taken out between thumb and forefinger. Let's hope this puts an end to the whole sordid affair.

-- Like the idea of a daily prompt? Click on Daily Dog Challenge and join us!

© 2011 BZ Training - All Rights Reserved