June 2, 2011 10:10 p.m.

Sweet Girl has been having a time.  It started back in late April.  We kept noticing that she was getting these raised, itchy patches around her ankles and calves.  She was scratching, scratching, and scratching, and really messing up her skin.  She tends to react strongly to any kind of insect bite, and we couldn’t figure out what was biting her each time as she had no recollection of the bites.  By early May, it was getting ridiculous.

Then one day, while our dog was sleeping, I took a very close up look and discovered that he had a case of fleas.  As in: “My dog has fleas.”  Not fun.  Thinking back, I had given him a dose of Frontline Plus a few weeks back (he has been on it for the 6 years we have had him) but I realized that over the winter, I had not religiously kept up the Frontline schedule as I ought.  Now I would regret allowing this seemingly small detail to slip between my fingers.

Then last week, Sweet Girl was watering plants for me and got bitten by a deer fly on her right hand.  Her right hand swelled up quite a bit for a couple of days.

By the weekend, her entire body developed a red rash.  It began on her forearms, and by that evening had spread over her thighs, upper arms, back, and her face.  Her face, in fact, had two bright, rosy cheeks – due to rash.  And she was itching, too.  She was not looking good, although she was not appearing ill in any way.

So, on Saturday, we spent several hours in the waiting room of the walk-in clinic.  When we finally met with the doctor, he thought that Sweet Girl was either allergic to something, or had had fifth disease and was getting over it; hence the extensive rash.  As she did develop a very low grade fever later in the weekend, I think fifth disease was the culprit.

Thankfully the rash is gone and she appears to be fine, now.  But that doesn’t stop the fact that she is very sensitive to flea bites, and we are having a hard time ridding the house entirely of fleas.  It is something that cannot be achieved overnight.  They are so small as to be virtually undetectable, but we know we are getting the bites because of tiny pinprick red spots on our ankles.  Unfortunately for Sweet Girl, they become swollen itchy welts.

So, every day, I am doing all I can to eliminate the fleas.  Our dog has taken to being an outside dog for nearly two weeks, now.  I am continuously vacuuming the tile floor.  We are laundering everything in sight, over and over.  And I am making Sweet Girl wear long pants, layered tops, and knee socks, day and night.  It is crazy, I know, but what’s a Mom to do?  Never a dull moment, right?