Fleas!

This is Moby:

He has fleas.

He has never had fleas before, and I don't know where he got them, but we are coping with our very first flea infestation, and boy, it sucks.

First of all, the mea culpa:  I have been a little lax with the Revolution treatments, but it's been winter, and we've never, ever seen a single flea on either cat before...

Anyway.  Fleas.  So, The Husband and I are attempting to de-flea the cats and house, and so far the process has been eventful.  Moby had a bad reaction to the first round of flea medicine, largely because he contorted himself in a feat of Kitty-yoga in order to lick it off his back.  We had a fun emergency trip to the vet together. I didn't get a picture of him foaming at the mouth, but I should have.  I was too scared I'd poisoned him to think of preserving another Special Moby Moment for posterity.  Next time.

So, we've been washing every single washable thing in the house... our clothes, blankets, pillows, towels... anything the cats have access to... which is pretty much everything.  Spencer doesn't even have a dresser, just shelves, and so his entire wardrobe is cat bedding, and now a possible flea egg problem.  After copious hours of research on the internets and a chat with our vet, we have adopted the following solution; it represents our compromise between wanting the fleas DEAD and GONE, and wanting to keep ourselves, our pets, and our house relatively chemical free.  We'll let you know if it works:

1. Revolution on both cats simultaneously, repeated religiously every month.  This is the only toxic element to our solution, and probably the most important phase of Operation De-Flea

2. Vacuuming everything, then disposing of the vacuum bag immediately.  Repeat daily.  As the vacuum bags get more expensive and i become less paranoid, I may keep the bag in the vacuum for several days of vacuuming, but stick a flea collar in there.  The collars are cheap, and while they are toxic and scary, they can't do a whole lot of damage from inside the vacuum, right?

3. Steam cleaning the carpets.  Apparently the hot steam will kill the flea eggs left behind by vacuuming.  Our carpets could use a deep clean anyway, also thanks to Moby.

4. Diatomaceous Earth-- sprinkled over the unwashable places the cats insist on sleeping on, on the carpet (wait 24 hours, then vacuum... again), in the crevasses of the couch, etc.  

5. Washing everything... blankets, sheets, towels, clothes, rugs, linens.  We may end up going to the laundromat, because doing this one load at a time in our eensy washer is taking FOREVER.  In the meantime, I have the unwashed stuff in plastic bags so the if there's flea eggs on there and they hatch, or flea larva that metamorphose, then the bugs aren't going anywhere until it's their turn for the washing machine.

I hate fleas.