This has been an unusually busy week and today was the worst.

Yesterday, my Cat Chloe had to have surgery. As I mentioned a few blogs ago, she’d been losing weight of late and now she’d stopped eating.  When I took her in before, her blood work had not indicated anything grave, other than a typical (for her age) kidney enzyme count or some such, which only required a diet change. However, I could tell she was losing weight and yet hungry all the time.  She liked her canned food, which was soft, but she was no longer going for the dry. Another age thing?

Well, felines have something they are prone to called resorption. It affects their teeth and gum area and can cause them quite a bit of pain. Fortunately only one tooth was involved, so we had it extracted.  She is fine now.

However, my little gal has to be on pain meds for three days. She was not a happy camper because when she got home, her favorite place to be (outside) was barred.

I couldn’t let her go out because it was now evening and we are known to have coyotes in the neighborhood, so the vet said no. Having been sedated, her reflexes would be subpar for awhile.

So up goes the baby gate and boy did she try to figure that thing out. She was not happy.

But all in all, she did get a pretty bandage.

In the meantime, I  add some warm water to her dry food per Dr.’s suggestion, which I did last night. She ate.

The downside to that is that this AM what was left over had drawn ANTS!!!  Lot’s of them, with a trail leading outside, down and around the patio to the fence and disappearing heaven knows where.

I know the neighbors have complained of ants, but they’d not been a problem here.

I looked everywhere for any kind of bug spray and found none.  So, I got out the vinegar. Well, it soaked them but it didn’t kill them, so Home Depot, here I come.

Oh dear!  So many choices. Which do I go for?

Well Spectricide was cheapest, Ortho next and the highest was RAID!  So, I used my “rule of thumb” and got the one priced in the middle.  I figured if Raid was that high, almost twice the others, it must have a ton of stuff I don’t want in the house or…near my pets. The cheapest, I reasoned might not do the trick, I don’t know, but I didn’t want to have to go back if it didn’t.  My animals were starving!  And, I wanted to be able to put their food down and feel it wouldn’t be contaminated.

I needn’t have worried. They’ve been sleeping most of the day anyway.

In addition to spray I got some of these little “traps”.  It says they’ll take the stuff to the nest and they’ll all be gone. I know how tenacious these little guys can be. I did the tour in Arizona of the Biodome where they had put several species of ants in there and the little guys took over and…eradicated all others!  Nope. I wasn’t taking any chances. These were little guys.

The first go around with vinegar didn’t do much. When I got back from the store, they’d already called in reinforcements. What a mess! I couldn’t think what on earth they could be going for. I don’t have a messy floor. I’d put the food up. What in hell’s name did they want, as one came crawling up my leg and then the other?!

I had to get in all the places I could think of. I laid them by the fence where they’d disappeared to and behind planters next to the doors. Everywhere the trail lead in.

I made sure to lay them in places where the pets couldn’t get them, not that they would, but just in case.

So…then I had to clean up the mess of ant carcasses and while I was at it, I bathed the dog. Ferguson, our Papillon, although a spaniel derivative,  hates baths but he actually did good this time and I even brushed his teeth without him fussin’ too much.

 

So by the time my two are ready to eat this evening I’m sure things will be fine.

I hope.

Killing ants is a lot of work.