Almost ready and stuff about fleas

I had to work this morning and we have spent most of the rest of the day getting ready for our trip. We are going to Gatlinburg, TN for a week. It's a long drive but we are looking forward to getting away for awhile. Oreo is coming with us but everyone else is staying home with a housesitter. We have a few things left to get done around the house and to pack but then we will be all set.

I'm quite ready for a break from work-I'm getting tired of shaving fecal matts off dog butts and diagnosing fleas. I swear in the summer I spend half my day charging people $35.85 to tell them their dog has fleas plus a varying amount of money to treat the secondary skin infection and itching plus the Frontline or Revolution they should have been using already to prevent the problem in the first place. This does not seem like an adequate use of a 7-year college education but it does pay the bills for said education!

While we're on the subject of fleas I have found that there are two kinds of people. The first are the people who didn't know their pet had fleas-even if it's a white dog with a thin coat, and the second are the people who know their pet has fleas but fail to believe that it's the fleas causing "all that itching and hair loss." There is a subset of the first group that not only didn't know their pet had fleas but adamantly denies it-despite their admission that they are not using flea control and the pet is only chewing on it's back end which is very typical of fleas. Usually if you look long enough (or sometimes not very long at all) you can find a flea on these pets-which is actually pretty satisfying. This is the Show-Me State after all! There is also a subset of the second group who fail to understand why this dog itches but the other one who also has fleas does not (varying allergic response to flea antigen) and why they have to treat the dog who is not itching as well (constant reservoir for the allergic dog, not to mention fleas carry disease and cause anemia and are annoying even if you are not allergic). It is a nasty flea and tick year here in the Midwest so I am sure this saga will continue throughout the summer. Makes a good year for the makers of Frontline, Revolution, and other products that actually work!