zenwan: Hi Endre, Penumbren - another Sherlock Holmes lover here, my father used to read the stories to us every night before bedtime, even the scary ones. I think I know most of them practically off by heart by now. I really like Sherlock, think that the team of Cumberbatch and Freeman are wonderful. I enjoyed the series starring Jeremy Brett as well.
penumbren: The first Holmes stories I read were the half-dozen collected in one of my grandparents' Reader's Digest sets; they were condensed (edited for length), but I never did figure out any noticeable difference. I think they were The Speckled Band, A Scandal in Bohemia, The Dancing Men, Silver Blaze... I'm not sure of the last two. It's been years since I even looked at those books, since one of my great-aunt's Christmas gifts to me one year was a huge compilation of all the Holmes stories, arranged in chronological order (according to one expert, anyway), with extensive notes, vocabularies, cross-references, and essays. It's an amazing book. (I mean physically huge: it's something like 18x12x4" and weighs 8.5 pounds - the first thing I did after unwrapping it was to run to the bathroom and weight it on the bathroom scale.)
I have yet to find a Sherlock that I just can't stand. Jeremy Brett is THE Holmes, to me, although I really like Sherlock and RDJ's versions. I think the earliest Holmes I saw on tv was actually Basil Rathbone, though. I need to hunt down a set of his movies, as I only have a few on VHS. I also have the Russian Holmes show somewhere on an external drive that I need to find again and watch, since I've heard so many marvelous things about it.
zenwan: Penumbren, I haven't had time to read through all the posts, but this one caught my eye. I wouldnt recommend flea collars at all, from what I have read they are toxic and dangerous. Natural remedies include washing your cat with Dawn soap, using a few drops of teatree or lavender oil (very much diluted in a safe oil like almond or olive) on the cat's collar, and also including apple cider vinegar and / or garlic in the cat's food or water, if the cat will tolerate that. Fleas supposedly hate the smell.
To get rid of fleas in the house, try this method, it really works:
http://www.wikihow.com/Eliminate-Fleas-from-Your-Home-for-Free Also try to keep the house relatively dry, as fleas love humidity. Depends where you live, I guess, because dehumidifiers are expensive.
penumbren: Thank you. I've read that tea tree oil can be toxic to cats, as they're much more sensitive to toxins than dogs, so I'd be hesitant about using that even in small doses, since they can build up. That's also part of why I'm so reluctant to use flea collars - although getting one to cut up and put in the vacuum while we clean seems like it might be a good idea.
My husband planted a combination of cat grass, catnip, mint, and lemon basil as something for the cats to have to munch on once it sprouts, and hopefully that will help, too. I suspect that once he's back from his trip, we'll be doing baths* again, followed by flea combs and more house cleaning/flea traps. If they're still around after that, I'll try the one-a-day pills for at least a few days, since they're supposed to work very quickly. (We have three cats, so $25 for 6 pills isn't terrible for medicine, but not exactly cheap, either.)
On the up side, it's not really humid here. Definitely moreso than Montana was, but not enough to present an actual issue as far as the fleas go.
* They all three had their very first baths ever two nights ago. Two of them are 15 and one is almost 5... it was interesting. The girl, who's the ones allergic to fleas, was the one I was most worried about because she's very lovey but very easily frightened/freaked out. I shouldn't have worried. She cried, but once I got in with her, she calmed down enough to cry but not panic and allow us to bathe her. The youngest boy was quiet and patient the entire time, even though he's long-haired and it took forever to even get him wet enough to shampoo. The one I wasn't worried about, the girl's brother, ended up being the one who turned into an acrobatic terror while shrieking - he nearly climbed the side of the shower door using only his front claws! It was pure luck that I managed to hold on to him without getting seriously injured, but I managed to get away without even a scratch.
My older cat, who passed away a few years ago, didn't like baths but didn't mind them if I was in with her and lifted her in to join me, rather than kneeling on the outside and scrubbing her. This seems to have extended to these three, even though we had to use the shower in our (bathtub-less) bathroom - a plug over the drain to have some water for pouring/rinsing and the shower head on low worked very well.
That Conan Doyle edition sounds wonderful - I bet that although you weighed it in the bathroom, you surely haven't tried reading it in the bath. :-D I've seen some of the Rathbone series, not heard of the Russian one, tho', but I rarely watch TV, so that's not surprising. Haven't seen Elementary either, although i gather that RDJ is good as Holmes.
Happy to hear that you seem to be dealing well with the flea situation, and that the cats were (mostly!) ok with the bathing. Funny that you had a cat who wanted to get in with you, that's amazing. I think you're right about the teatree, best not to take a chance. What I do every now and then is throw a few drops of teatree and eucalyptus into one of those little oil burners with a tealight underneath just to clean the air, especially when there are flu germs around. It seems to work, at least I'm always very healthy. :-)
Have a happy day, you and the cats, and hi to everyone else reading this, my rather tardy response, sorry.
