Inquisitive Kitty!

[Joyce]

I brought in a tub of tropical lilies today and made a bouquet out of the buds I trimmed.
Then put it on my kitchen windowsill.   


And Ernie just had to investigate the 'new thing' on the windowsill. 

He sure is an inquisitive kitty! 
And he is growing like a weed! 

[Jerry]

A good looking cat for sure.  I bet she smells "pond" on the lillies, and pond means fish!
Great display!

[EagleEye]

Hey Joyce, that's a lot better than a cat with fleas :'(

Charlie snuck out and ended up with a bad case of them, so Mon after work he got  frontline, and he's OK, but my house is a DISASTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
20 mule team borax on every nook and cranny, carpeting, furniture.-----Well tonight I'm vaccuming it up.

Do you realize how many coctails (that's a nice term for drinks) it rtakes to vaccum up a house full of borax?????????????????

LOTS, and I'm only half way done.. Stil have to do the downstairs.

Biut my buddy Charlie is Ok and eating bluegills and loving it..
Charilie is my computer buddy===== I keep telling him, when he flops his head on the keyboard that he is going ot have to get his own computer. 

for those of you who get, from time to time, fleas, I can tell 9ou how to get rid of them in the house, but it ain't pretty.

Steve

[Kittyzee]

Joyce,
What a sweet baby cat--they sure can be nosey can't they?  I have brought some plants in recently (last night it got down to 24*!) and one bunch in particular they have munched on and I have been cleaning up "green barf" every morning.    You think they'd get the message, so I put it where they can't reach it.  In this year's litter I had two stripeys like Ernie, only they didn't have white paws like him.  One gets in the house almost daily:  she shoots in under the door and runs for the cat bowls, or a head scratch, or whatever she can find, but I always put her back outside purring her heart out.

Steve,
My vet always tells me that if there's fleas in the house, to Frontline the cats cuz fleas always go to the cat.  The frontline will kill the fleas.    I'll bet Joyce has a remedy since her cats go in and out all the time. 

[Esther]

Hope Ernie hasn't heard the old saying, "Curiosity killed the cat." Never did understand what that meant.

Did you guys read my thread about the work I did on our rental duplex??? Did you notice the times I bombed this room, flea powdered that room, Stanley Steemered the carpet in the basement, and on and on??? We got Frontline for Smokey and Mittens. Mittens wasn't even over there, just Smokey, but I wasn't risking somebody bringing them home here and Mittens getting them too. After I saw how the fleas would try to climb up our pantlegs at the duplex, I was considering Frontline for us too. I began tucking my pantlegs in my sox and then spraying my shoes, sox and pantlegs before I went in the duplex to work.

[Joyce]

This is a BAD time of year for fleas. 
The outdoor fleas are looking for an winter home inside, the colder it gets,
the more they congregate outside your doors, where they feel warm air leaking out the most.
So even if you used drops, they will jump on your pet OR YOU, hitch a ride indoors and colonize in your rugs.
That is why when we first walked through this house, and I saw it was all hardwood or tiled floors, I had to have it.
Also, it has central vacumm, which means anything you suck up, goes outside and stays outside,
nothing goes through a wimpy filter only to get blown into the room again.
Wall to wall carpeting sux if you have pets. It collects dust, pollen, pet dander and hair,
and no matter how much you vacuum, there is always a LOT you don't get up.
And like I said above, most vacuums have very inadequate filters, no matter how much they advertise how 'hypoallergenic' they may be.
A lot ends up getting blown back into the room as microparticles of allergens.
And wall to wall carpet harbors most pet parasites too.
On a few of my areas rugs I use Diatomaceous Earth sprinkled on and rubbed in with my feet. (just before I go to work)
I leave it on for the day and when I get home, lightly vacuum and/or gently shake the rugs outside just so they don't look powdery.
Most of the DE falls into the base of the fibers and continues to kill fleas even if you don't see the DE on the surface of the rug.
DE kills fleas because it is microscopic sharp grit (all natural NOT a chemical) which gets into the soft joints of the fleas shell,
pierces, slices and dices and makes them literally bleed to death, desiccates them.
DE is harlmess to you and your pets, harmless to fish too and if mixed with food, kills internal parasites too.
I use Frontline or Advantage Flea Drops on the cats and the dog, whichever I have coupons for or happens to be cheaper.
There is also a pill you can buy from the vet that kills all fleas and ticks within 24 hours. 

This time of year I put drops on them every 2 weeks til the first HARD frost which kills adult fleas. Light frosts don't kill them.

[EagleEye]

Well, Here is the deal: 20 mule team borax will kill all fleas, lavea and eggs. So I left it on till thurs evening, vaccumed the upstairs, fri, did part of the downstairs, and this morning did the rest of the downstairs.
Holy crap, my house is really clean

Think I might just keep him on frontline in warm weather. Hate to go through this again.

Washed all the bedding, took all of the quilts to the laundy mat, man did that cost alot!
Now, time to reload and play.

The weather here this weekend is awesome, managed to ride  over 400 miles the last two days too.

Love it,

Steve

[Mikey]

Never thought of taking cuttings from lilies to bring indoors.  Pretty cool.  Now how do I get the fetching one to wade out into the pond....? 

I like Ernie's markings.  Someone I know from another forum is buying a Bengal kitty and Ernie's markings remind me of a Bengal.  Our cat is an indoor cat but sometimes fleas manage to find their way inside.  We treat with Advantage and it has done a great job and most importantly it doesn't make her sick.

[Lori]

Joyce,
Thanks for the new use for DE. I love that stuff even more now!  We are without a pet at the moment as we had to put our 11 year old harlequin Great Dane down this  summer.  Still miss her. 
Your bud bouquet has me nostalgic for my tropicals already.  I brought the last bloom in yesterday, knowing it wouldn't open all the way and today it is already drooping.  Ah well, it was a great fall.  We had a record high of 79* yesterday.  Not bad for November in Iowa.
Thanks for all the great pix you treat us with.
Lori

[Kat]

Ernie sure is growing fast & is a handsome kitty    I'll have to keep y'alls info in the back of my mind in case we get fleas.  I've had to battle them a couple times & it is definitely not fun.

[Joyce]

Lori, so sorry about your GD...I know how painful that can be after holding my Kleo while they put her down.  :'(
But I did what she would have wanted...rescued another kitty in her name, in her honor, in her memory. 
She would have wanted me to replace her in order to save another kitty's life.

The DE works even better if you have one of those carpet rakes, or even a clean garden rake will do.
Rake it into your carpets, let it sit for a day, and the lightly vacuum the surface of the rugs allowing most of the DE to remain and do it's work.

Ernie's marking are becoming stronger and stronger 'Bengalesque'. Definitely has some Bengal in him, or Egyptian Mau. Also: He is very vocal.
And extremely smart to the point of being scary. And his thumbs are opposable so I have seen him pick up pens/pencils and other small items.
He also loves to carry toys and anything else that interests him in his mouth.
I won't mention how many times I have chased him around while he has something in his mouth very personal to me. 
You can see him calcaulating what his next move will be, plotting, figuring, judging distances....

Another way fleas get inside is on mice. So if you've seen mice in your house, the mice carry fleas, just like your cat or dog.
In fact that is how most cats get fleas, by catching and eating flea infested animals.

[Esther]

Interesting Joyce. What you have said confirms all I learned when Googling "flea infestation". I still bombed though just to be sure. After we removed the carpet, I sprinkled a mixture of Borax and DE (from the pool) on the cracks between the pieces of sub floor and carefully swept it into the cracks. When I vacuumed, I skipped over the cracks and guess it's still there under the new carpet. LOL. I was determined that the fleas weren't coming back later.

[Joyce]

After battling cancer, I won't use any 'bombs' in my house.
Actually Oncologist Orders: No chemical Pesticides Allowed in ANY form. 
In this case, I'm doing it more for Jamie than me.
She is horribly phobic of cancer now and wants everything done in a 'green' way.
I'm with her ALL the way.