Jackpot!

No, I didn't win that 640 million dollar Mega Millions jackpot drawing this past Friday (I didn't even win $1 in that!). But Secret thinks that this might be EVEN BETTER.

We now have in our possession what more or less amounts to a lifetime supply of used inflation units -- Otherwise known to the rest of the dog population as Udder Tug toys -- For FREE!

When the Udder Tug toy (long with handle model -- retails for $15) proved to be such a hit with Secret, I started to go through my list of "folks I know" who might be able to help us out with finding more of these remarkable objects. I knew that one of my co-workers at the shelter also works on a dairy farm, so a week or so I sidled up to Lanette and asked her a very strange question (to her at least).

Of course I couldn't remember what they were REALLY called, and asking her if she had any Udder Tugs wasn't going to help, either. So I more or less sounded like a complete fool as I asked her if they might ever have any of those rubber tubular things that go in the milker things for the cows. Actually, that's probably a bit more eloquent than I actually was as I stumbled over my words.

Somehow she managed to figure out that I was inquiring about these things called "inflations" and she more or less thought I was completely crazy to have paid $15 for one. She wasn't surprised about the use of them, because apparently all the dogs on the farm go nuts for them. She asked how many I wanted. I don't know, a bag? How big of a bag, she asked? I don't know, surprise me!

And there you go -- One GIANT bag of inflation units all for us! Ripe off the farm, which impressed Secret to no end (I think it's like catnip for dogs). It was a pretty fragrant ride home from the shelter last night, even encased in their plastic bag. Our giant bag of inflations will live in the garage...

So now I need to decide what I'm going to do with them. Knotting a string of nylon rope through them seems easy enough and having a knot at the end seems like it would afford a better grip. Looking at my Udder Tug with the handle, I see the handle is nothing more than the top part of the inflation --- So really, I imagine making my own handled version likely wouldn't even be that hard. I do also want to see about sticking one over our leash to see if Secret will tug with it, too. With this many inflation do-hickey things in our possession, the possibilities are really endless. :o)

I reapplied Frontline Plus to all of the dogs on Monday prior to our midday walk. The good news is that I have not pulled any attached ticks off anyone since then, so maybe the last dose that I applied on March 1 was just wearing off (we did go swimming several times, after all). It could be that we might just have to apply it every three weeks or so this year vs. monthly as suggested.

I hate applying it to Secret, though. Neither of the boys really have any reaction to topicals whatsoever, but Secret has always reacted negatively. I don't know if it's the chemicals that are affecting her or if it's just the feeling of it spreading over her skin that wigs her out. Secret has very thin/fine hair and the top spot treatments definitely dissipate differently on her than the boys.

More or less, she just kind of wigs out for 24 hours or so. I always apply Frontline immediately before going on a walk so that she is distracted and doesn't have a spastic fit. This works, because as long as she's doing something she does seem okay. But when we get back to the office she's just odd. She becomes very twitchy and jumpy and is more or less incredibly unsettled for the rest of the day. She also drools. A lot. Even when we went to bed that evening she was not herself. By the next morning she seems fine.

It is for that reason that I am terribly uncomfortable with the idea of trying anything stronger (like Certifect, which has now been suggested to me by several people after I moaned about ticks on Facebook the other day). Truthfully, if Frontline continues to have such a poor efficacy this year I may just stop putting it on her at all and pursue other options. We'll see, I just figure anything that changes her behavior for 24 hours can't really be a good thing...