it was the best of times

It’s been one hell of a week…

Last weekend we made a quick stop at the Burbank Animal Shelter on our way to Target, and immediately we fell in love with a big pit bull terrier mix named Rufus. We went home and hummed and hawed over whether to adopt him or not. The decision was that on Monday I would take a long lunch and we would go back to the shelter to make a final decision (leaning toward yes at this point). But Monday morning I decided to check the Lacy Street Animal Shelter website to see who might want to come home with us from there (it’s right by our house). Lo and behold, there was Escalations… a sweet little Chihuahua mix puppy around 5 months old that we had met in June. When we first met him he had just been brought to the shelter and there was evidence of an owner so he was not up for adoption. A month later, no one had claimed him so there he sat waiting for us. Sad news for Rufus, Tuesday morning we went in and adopted Escalations. (But Matt has promised me that if Rufus doesn’t find a home and they are threatening to put him down we will foster him until we find him a forever home!)

What also happened Tuesday morning is that we woke up to what looked like dirt where Krunchy had been sleeping – our bed. After the adoption, Matt took Krunchy to the vet only to find out that he had fleas. I headed home early from work in order to help clean the house from head to toe and get rid of this damn infestation. The cats were quarantined to a bathroom and the dog to the kitchen after being treated with medication (Escalations would be at the vet until Wednesday afternoon). Matt and I scrubbed, vacuumed, washed, sprayed, bombed, dusted, mopped and cleaned the house until 2 in the morning. We said good night to all the kids in quarantine and headed off to a restless night of sleep. The next morning we were awake by 6am only to find new flea dirt on our clean sheets. Everything we had done apparently wasn’t enough. Matt got in touch with Orkin and I went to check on the kitties. And then chaos ensued… the cats were not in the bathroom where we had left them and the screen to the small and very high bathroom window was taken off the track and pushed open. They escaped! In a panic I ran outside in my pajamas with Matt hot on my heels. We frantically called for the cats. A faint meow came from a plastic garden bench we use for storage on the front porch. Mustard was found. But Krunchy would be much more elusive than that. I walked up and down our street, calling for Krunchy while tears streamed down my face. Matt and I were sure we would never find him. Matt had taken off his collar when applying the flea medication the day before. Now he was just a nameless black cat among the masses of stray cats in our neighborhood. We were panicked but came up with a plan to comb the area. Just then a stranger approached walking her dogs, Matt ran over to ask her if she’d seen our black cat. When I joined the conversation I realized it was someone I knew through work oddly enough, Jenni from Pixwel (didn’t even know she lived in the area). She had not seen our cat. It was at this point that I heard another meow in the distance. I abruptly left the conversation and ran in the direction of the sound. It was Krunchy! He came back to us! I don’t know where he had been but he was ready to come home. With that crisis averted we decided it was best to board all the animals at the vet while we continued to fight our flea problem.

The kids were all sent to the vet. Escalations had been renamed to Moose and would be staying at his vet until Friday. The Orkin man came and sprayed. Matt and I cleaned one last time. And now all our kids are back home, including Moose. The house is clean, our backs are sore but we think the fleas are all gone. Can’t wait to get home tonight and see my family! Happy Friday XOXO

P.S.
Pictures of Moose will come this weekend!

P.P.S.
Apparently it wasn't new flea dirt in our bed the next morning but old flea dirt stains (flea dirt is flea poop, fleas eat blood, flea poop is essentially blood)! Uh, guess we over-reacted just a bit... better safe than sorry though :-)