Hartz Mountain , Consumer Affairs & Cats

 I have 3 cats and I live in North Florida.
North South, doesn't matter, we have bugs ... mosquitoes, spiders that are all too big , snakes and lizards too ... and the usual beetles and roaches etc that I pretend do not exist.
Especially the spiders ... shuddering....

The cats have been pretty good about keeping the bug population out on the porch to a minimum .. in fact, there are never any bugs out there ... can the screens be that good ? or are there cat picnics going on ?

"Mmmm taste this beetle Minette, you'll love it .... oh wait wait, have a bit of this spider Merlin ... yummy isn't it ? "

But even having  3 cats doesn't always help .. like when I saw a snake outside the lanai ... then saw a snake come in under the lanai door ... I grabbed the cats and ran inside ... scared the pants off the snake who ran back under the door and out into the grass.

Now I have Honey. Honey of the late Michelle R who adopted a tiny kitten that turned into this creature that is dog sized and heavy .. like back ache heavy ... with this tiny meow .. makes me laugh every time.

They are all City Cats ... what do they know about bugs ? especially living with me ... Bug ? where ? dead.

So picture this ...

Cats on the lanai. sun shining . mama in the house .. snake coming in under the screen door .. Mama happens to come out into the lanai as snake makes its presence known.
Minette the fearless, goes in for the kill.
Mama grabs Minette, swoops up Merlin who is wondering what the **** is this fuss about ?? and grabs Honey and rushes into the house ... slamming sliding doors shut .. snake makes for the exit as fast as he can ... telling all his friends for weeks about the dangers of going into the house with the cats and crazy lady ...

Now ... it is a totally different situation but actually bothers me much  more.


The little homeless cat in the woods ... appears in the late afternoon and cries.
Came to the door recently .. how can I let her in ? I put my kids in the house, let her in and feed her and give her water and pet her while she purrs like the best of car motors ....then she falls asleep .. safe, she thinks .. full ...   so tired.

When she woke up, she wanted out and out she went , back into the woods.
She is not out there now but she will be later .. or now, I will worry ... I can't have her but I can love her.

I put foil along the bottom of the door to discourage snakes from sneaking into the lanai ..

Now about Hartz Mt products ...
Since it is summer and Florida, I bought the cats Ultraguard Plus flea and tick drops ..

Merlin got the first drops and got very fussy about it ... I wiped it off and gave Minette hers ..
Then I started to worry about his reaction so I wiped Minette clean too.

By evening, I noted that Merlin lost hair where the Hartz Mt crap had been applied and there were 2 red almost bloody spots about the size of dimes .. pink skin, hair came right out.

I will call them. I will complain but mostly this is a Warning.
Don't use this stuff. I am thankful Merlin is OK .. I am thankful I had not put any on the others yet .
You just don't know what or who to trust anymore ..