Amy's Blog

We flushed Sammy the bala shark today. He was fine yesterday, then today, just floating for no apparant reason. No injuries I could see. The tank has been sitting at 73-75 though which is apparantly within his comfort zone, but maybe lower than he’d like. We are still having issues with the heater. It isn’t even coming on all the time. I could argue that it was just not able to heat the water, if it was actually on all the time, but it isn’t. It’s just stupid. Sammy was my favorite and I’m sad he had to go. We will probably buy a new Sammy at some point though.

Today I ran errands all afternoon, including a bit of Christmas shopping, and buying some Advantage for the animals (flea medication). I just don’t think the stuff we had been using was working well enough. Maybe it would have if we could actually spray the animals all over without them freaking out/running away. But Ciaran hasn’t stopped scratching since we first saw fleas around, and her poor little tummy especially is getting really red and irritated and she is now starting to lose some fur. I saw another flea on Pao the other day, and flea poop in her coat. The Advantage is freaking expensive though, but from what I have heard it really works well. We might just keep them on it year round. Its actually not that pricy if you look at it on a monthly basis, it’s just because you have to buy it in a 6 month pack, and buy it for cats and the dog, that makes it so expensive all at once.

I used a recipe I found online to concoct an anti-itch lotion for the dog. I hope it’s OK for her. It’s mostly aloe vera, with some witch hazel and tea tree oil in it. It’s supposed to be really good for bug bites on humans too. I just put it on her tummy where she is really irritated, and she seemed to actually like me rubbing it on there. She hasn’t been trying to lick it off and it seems to be helping with the scratching. She’s still scratching occasionally but not as vigorously or as often as before.

I’m still pretty tired from this weekend – two fourteen hour days in a row – so I’m basically laying low for the next few days I have off. Then, I will do next weekend, and all the craziness will be over – school and craft fairs both. My last exam is Sat night. I’m not too worried about this exam but it will still be nice for it to be done with.