WTF, FLEAS

Evidently this is a really bad year for fleas. And by, "bad for fleas," I really mean, "good for fleas and bad for everyone who hates fleas. Which is, you know, every living thing on this planet. Except maybe for things that eat fleas. They probably really like them."

ANYWAY, the reason I am bringing this up is because all three of my dogs have fleas. Let me take a moment to illustrate the severity of the situation to you. I picked a few fleas off of Tippy this morning. I picked ten off of Pete after I got back from lunch. It has been like this every day for the past few weeks. I can see the fleas crawling around beneath their fur. They will surface, crawl to a new location, and then go back down into the fur like some kind of parasitic dolphin. Flea baths only do so much, because as soon as the dogs go outside to pee they are crawling with fleas again. The fleas also seem to have inhabited the carpet because every now and then one will hop onto my leg or arm.

We have been fighting the battle against the fleas for what feels like forever but has probably been just a few weeks (which is still, you know, FOREVER). We have tried everything: topical solutions, flea baths, spraying the yard, vacuuming the house and tossing the bags, spraying the carpet with flea killer, washing the dogs' beds. We even gave them a pill that was supposed to last for 24 hours but ended up making them sick. The problem is so bad that I have flea bites on my legs (because I'm pretty sure there are some in my bed) and I feel itchy all the time, although that last bit is probably a result of the psychosis the fleas are causing.

If you have ANY ideas about what we can do to get rid of these damn things, please, please, PLEASE let me know because we are just at an absolute loss.

On a less cringe-worthy note, I am currently sorting through all the pictures I took on my last foray out into the world. It's taking me a while to get through them all, but here's a teaser for what's (hopefully) soon-to-come: