excess verbiage

My cat doesn't have fleas, but for as long as I can remember, we've always put flea collars on our pets over the years. Recently, I went to the pet store and noticed that it's been increasingly difficult to find flea collars, let alone in a wide variety of brands, types, or colours. So I bought the one that they had there which was different from what I normally get.

Usually, when you first put on the collar, there's a strong smell for a few days because of the chemicals in it. So I try to put it on him and let him go outside a lot to get some fresh air so that the chemicals don't bother him too much. He's never had a problem and he's 17 years old, so he's used it. But this time, I put it on in the evening and let him out for an hour or so. When he came back he was fine so I didn't think anything of it. The next morning though, he was acting kind of weird and I wasn't sure what it was. I had to leave for work, so I couldn't do anything about it at the time anyway.

So when I got back from work, I knew something was wrong, because normally when I get in, he comes running, all perky, wanting to go outside right away. And he's very chatty too. But this day, he was laying on the stairs in the sun and could barely move his head to look at me. He was really lethargic. Yeah I know, cats sleep 20 hours of the day but this was different. He was slow to get up to walk around, wouldn't talk much, no appetite. That freaked me out as well.

Then it dawned on me that it was all because of the flea collar. This one smelled a lot stronger than the usual ones, so my poor kitty was doped up all day. He couldn't escape the smell obviously, since it's around his neck. So he was like some stoner, only without the munchies! I took it off and went to the pet store and just bought one of those other collars that come with a bell, though I removed the bell because that's pretty annoying. I guess there's a reason they don't really sell flea collars anymore. They're not very good for the pets, and they have these other things to help against fleas if that problem arises.

So I got him a cute light blue collar with rhinestone paws decorated on it. It's quite the snazzy collar and brings out the blue in his eyes. lol. The next morning, he was back to his perky ol' self, and I was so relieved. I hate seing animals (and people) doped up like that. But yeah, for any of you who do use flea collars, beware. It can make your pet sick and it's pretty unnecessary these days.