Well tonight I came home and my man said to me, "Did you leave the kitchen door open?" and I said, "We always leave the kitchen door open."
We walked to the kitchen, he opened the door, and we saw what the cat did. I have no idea what got into her (or even if it was her?!).
There were two loaves of bread on the floor, packaging ripped open and bread missing. A broken drinking glass lay in pieces next to the bread. Our butter dish lay there completely empty.
The garbage had been rifled through and there was a meat package on the floor, and other bits of garbage.
After all this time, I wonder what made her decide to suddenly go for our food (and garbage)? She certainly did not miss her breakfast in the morning, and all the mice she can eat outside. My man said, "Do you think the donkey got in here?"
The worst part of all is difficult for me to blog about. I have to warn you, this is really nasty. I have never seen anything like this in my 5 years here. OK I've seen things like this but not like this.
Next to all the broken glass I saw what I thought was a shiny bead from jewelery. Then I saw legs wiggling.
It was an engorged castor bean tick. It was the size of a California raisin, plumped up. It was shiny and so large it was utterly helpless on our floor, legs in the air.
How on earth could such a creature live on our cat without us noticing, or without the cat removing it? Was our cat the source of this thing ..or....even worse...
I'll apply more Frontline tonight when she goes to sleep (my only chance) but I don't think it works very well against ticks. Seattleites, you are so lucky you never have to deal with ticks!!! They are exponentially more disgusting than fleas because they don't just drink and move on, they attach and live on you and grow larger and larger...
Are you ready for a photo? Of course I had to take them before my man dispatched it.
Oh, when he did, he said it was Fail-blog worthy, a slow motion explosion film. It bled as if someone stepped on a black cherry.
I'm so grossed out I doubt I'll sleep tonight.
I'm so glad we don't let the cat in our bedroom so it's an insect-free zone.
Ready for pics of our disease-carrying unwelcome visitor? I put my work key there for size reference (I cannot put a Euro penny down there because it's not the same size as an American penny).
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19 comments:
Part of the problem is Frontline. It's the most horrible Topical Flea Treatment out there. I use to use it and then I took my dog in to get treated and the vet said he had the worst flea infestation he had ever seen. I had just treated that puppy with frontline a week before. I use Comfortis Flea Pills and Preventic Tick Collars now. For my cats, who are all indoors, I use Comfortis for them too. Prescribed by my vet.
What I don't get is these people who say onions and chocolate is poisonous to animals yet they put garlic in their food. Don't they know that garlic is related to onions and is bad for them also?
If your cat is acting out all of a sudden, it could be not feeling well. Maybe a trip to the vet should be done? I had a cat all of a sudden start doing similar stuff and it turned out she had a kidney infection.
Had a longer comment but blogger ate it. Gist of it was, Frontline is horrible stuff.
My cat use to act out like that when she was sick. Maybe a trip to the vet to make sure everything is okay?
oh, I'm sorry, but I'm also laughing! Bad kitty! Ticks are sooo gross, and even though I deal with them here on a daily basis this time of year (I promise, no photos, but I had one the size of the tip of my pinky finger), I still do a "icky tick dance" when I have to pull one off. We have a jar of alcohol we can drop them in, because yes, squishing them is over-the-top nasty. Sweet dreams!
Omg that thing is huge!! Ick ick ick!
Is there any chance it hasn't been there that long and just engorged rapidly?
One of the things I love about where we live in New Mexico is no ticks or mosquitoes.
Dan
I don't get grossed out often... but ICCCCCKKKK!!!! I had a similar experience when I found a tick about that size on my dog... living in the corner of her mouth. She had shaggy, wire hair, and I checked her regularly... but how often does one check the corner of a dog's mouth? I felt really guilty. I have to admit, I am not looking forward to living where there are ticks. That is one nice thing about SoCal.
Any chance some other critter got in the house to do the kitchen damage? I'm thinking raccoon, if you have them. Does Mercer have a kitty door that someone else is taking advantage of?
Ticks are so disgusting, I scrolled past the pics as fast as I could so I wouldn't have to see it! I have picked PLENTY of them in my time. Love/hate/:puke: at the way they explode. Check the equids, too! My Percheron was a tick magnet but the other horses rarely got them.
Banders is psychotically fixated on bread. You cannot leave bread out. Well, we don't eat bread anymore and that fixed that, but when I did, I had to hide it in a latching cabinet or he'd OPEN THE CABINETS to get to it.
I bet Mercer was crazed from blood loss and needed bread and butter to build new blood cells ;)
That doesn't sound right to me, are you positive it was your cat? Sorry this happened. . .
why do you think eating mice is good for the cat? is that supposed to be the main source for the cats diet? it does not sound healthy for the cat. i hope you are feeding mercer a high quality canned food or making your own cat food for her
http://www.catinfo.org/
That sounds like a lot of work for one cat, is it possible that something else could have gotten in somehow? Maybe an open window or door ajar or something like that. Was the food gone or just opened?
eww, I hate ticks too, we get them here unfortunatly. And we also used to use flea/tick collars on our cats, they seem to work the best. hope no more ticks and no more bad kitties.
Living in Nebraska, ticks just come with the territory. They don't just bother the cats and dogs either, they work themselves into the horses' manes and tails!! I've gotten to be quite good and plucking the fat things off of the animals without popping them....gross indeed!
For the cats and dogs I have found that flea/tick collars work much better than the topical treatments like Frontline.
Last night I found an identical twin to that tick on the floor in my living room. I am still pretty grossed out that it was so big and shiney. *sudder*
I!!!
HATE!!!
TICKS!!!!!
are you sure a dog didn't slip in the house??
(I'm picturing a cartoon here... : )
- The Equestrian Vagabond
Arghh! I hate ticks!
I'm with EvenSong. I can't imagine a cat doing all that damage, perhaps you are getting a sneaky visitor. I wonder if a fox would get in, seems kind of a long shot though.
Hope Mercer is feeling better soon. I feel your pain, my cat has never had fleas before we moved into the house we're currently renting. It was a leaving present from the previous renter's cat...yuk!
I don't believe it was Mercer either. Possible for a wild animal to get in and destroy the kitchen while leaving that nasty tick behind? UCK!
ok all y'all (funder please confirm correct usage)
..
i think you're right. the last two nights i found a black kater (male cat) on several of my windowsills. and...oddly, one rabbit. i mean, the rabbit was just hopping up to the window, saw me, and then rapidly hopped away, but this black cat ...
hm
i'm pissed cuz i hate a house that smells like litter box, and i've never had that due to my polite, spayed cat, peeing mostly outdoors. now i have this uncastrated male cat stench in my bathroom, and a wrecked kitchen. and a black kater every day on the window sills asking if he can come in and try again to ....seduce? my huntress mercer.
this is ridiculous. i had to shut the window today. i like to leave a window cracked to let mercer in and out.
tonight after mercer came in for dinner, and i shut the window, i heard her howl in a new way. sure enough - black cat on the other side of the glass.
still --better than a dog.,...i hope.
Ugh!! I HATE ticks!! And stray cats lol. They are such pests. Is there animal control over there that you can call? I hope you can figure it out. :D
And yes I agree with the other Frontline does NOT work on ticks! I was using Frontline when my dog contracted a tick disease . . . I was NOT happy.
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