The Plagues
This is not a complaint. This is an observation and a report of what has now taken over our lives here. I love animals - I love nature - but there are certain things which I am not overly fond of - and they have made themselves a home on mine, in mine and around mine - animals, abode and atmosphere. And they are in no particular order - ants, fleas, flies, mosquitos, mites. I also have spiders but I really like spiders and they don't fall under this category at all. We keep each other company - and it's fine by me.
But back to the plagues. I have ants everywhere. I have ants coming through the woodwork, through the floor (archaelogical diggings - sand EVERYWHERE - piles of diggings) on the counter, on the table, on the walls and on me. One night - it was motzei shabbat - and like a horror movie - thousands of them hatched. All of the colony - hatched together and these were the big, black carpenter ants - and they just swarmed all over the floor. I had just finished making havdala and felt pretty bad about having to pour water all over the floor and just squeegee them all out. It took me over an hour. There were that many. And they kept coming out. It was a nightmare. The next day there was a tsunami in Burma. Butterfly Effect at work.
Then I have tiny ants, and bigger than those, some are brown, some black. Some gentle, some bite. I know - I've been bitten. And I have cats so they get to their food MINUTES after the cats leave - and before I know it I have platefuls of ants and I have to drown them too. I feel really bad about this. Sometimes I blow them off into the wild. Sometimes I have just had it. I've thrown out food, beverages and honey jars filled with them. And there's no end. I've tried plugging up their holes with caulk - no deal. They dig around that. My place isn't dirty and I don't leave bloody messes about - but all it takes are a few crumbs - or kibble here and there - and before you know it - it's an invasion.
Then the flies - they come from outdoors. I had fruit flies and that was a nightmare after Pesach. Come to think of it the swarm of Carpenter ants was just after Pesach too.
And the mites are in my cats' ears. And they're all suffering. I've been treating them and it's a laborious process. This concoction, that oil, this medicine, that syringe.
And the fleas - they got from who knows where - and that brings their itching and tapeworms - need I go on?
And it's all I can do is just MAINTAIN this menagerie of parasites from sucking the lifeforce out of us all. I feel so bad for my cats that they have to go through these treatments. Today I gave 2 of them BATHS. Yes. BATHS. I learned about how to do this via an expert and she said to keep your face close them, get wet with them, just don't let them think they're alone in the water. OK. Did it. And didn't get eyes gauged out either. Just a shirt was ripped. Big deal. Then administered LEMON JUICE - reconstituted bu juice nontheless and that seems to repel them naturally. There are enough chemicals going around anyway - do I try to keep the treatments natural. I also have Dichotemous Earth and I think I will use that also on everything. It's relatively safe.
I wash the floor, vacuum it - air stuff out. But this seems to be a mecca for the lost, hungry and parasitic. There's even a stray cat who fits that bill. That's a whole other story. Suffice to say he shows up YOWLING and YOWLING on my back porch to be fed - *like the other cats you're feeding*. He doesn't get that these are MY cats and MY responsibility and HE's not. Sometimes I feel so sorry for him - I throw him some morsels knowing fully well he'll just be back.
I have to learn that everything has a task and a message. And even the lowly fly probably has a message for mankind and a praise for Hashem. In Pirkei Shira it's probably there. I'm just too tired now to look it up.
But back to the plagues. I have ants everywhere. I have ants coming through the woodwork, through the floor (archaelogical diggings - sand EVERYWHERE - piles of diggings) on the counter, on the table, on the walls and on me. One night - it was motzei shabbat - and like a horror movie - thousands of them hatched. All of the colony - hatched together and these were the big, black carpenter ants - and they just swarmed all over the floor. I had just finished making havdala and felt pretty bad about having to pour water all over the floor and just squeegee them all out. It took me over an hour. There were that many. And they kept coming out. It was a nightmare. The next day there was a tsunami in Burma. Butterfly Effect at work.
Then I have tiny ants, and bigger than those, some are brown, some black. Some gentle, some bite. I know - I've been bitten. And I have cats so they get to their food MINUTES after the cats leave - and before I know it I have platefuls of ants and I have to drown them too. I feel really bad about this. Sometimes I blow them off into the wild. Sometimes I have just had it. I've thrown out food, beverages and honey jars filled with them. And there's no end. I've tried plugging up their holes with caulk - no deal. They dig around that. My place isn't dirty and I don't leave bloody messes about - but all it takes are a few crumbs - or kibble here and there - and before you know it - it's an invasion.
Then the flies - they come from outdoors. I had fruit flies and that was a nightmare after Pesach. Come to think of it the swarm of Carpenter ants was just after Pesach too.
And the mites are in my cats' ears. And they're all suffering. I've been treating them and it's a laborious process. This concoction, that oil, this medicine, that syringe.
And the fleas - they got from who knows where - and that brings their itching and tapeworms - need I go on?
And it's all I can do is just MAINTAIN this menagerie of parasites from sucking the lifeforce out of us all. I feel so bad for my cats that they have to go through these treatments. Today I gave 2 of them BATHS. Yes. BATHS. I learned about how to do this via an expert and she said to keep your face close them, get wet with them, just don't let them think they're alone in the water. OK. Did it. And didn't get eyes gauged out either. Just a shirt was ripped. Big deal. Then administered LEMON JUICE - reconstituted bu juice nontheless and that seems to repel them naturally. There are enough chemicals going around anyway - do I try to keep the treatments natural. I also have Dichotemous Earth and I think I will use that also on everything. It's relatively safe.
I wash the floor, vacuum it - air stuff out. But this seems to be a mecca for the lost, hungry and parasitic. There's even a stray cat who fits that bill. That's a whole other story. Suffice to say he shows up YOWLING and YOWLING on my back porch to be fed - *like the other cats you're feeding*. He doesn't get that these are MY cats and MY responsibility and HE's not. Sometimes I feel so sorry for him - I throw him some morsels knowing fully well he'll just be back.
I have to learn that everything has a task and a message. And even the lowly fly probably has a message for mankind and a praise for Hashem. In Pirkei Shira it's probably there. I'm just too tired now to look it up.
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