Through the wide sliding doors came an elderly woman. Her footsteps were small and burdened, her joints groaned as she made her way difficultly to the tall counter. In her arms, she carried a light tan box; its interior was dark and hidden in shadows. She signed her name on the patients list and sat down with a sigh of relief on the dark, crimson vinal bench. A small whimper of pain followed by a hissing screech came from within the interior of her cargo. She gingerly opened the metal door of the plastic pet-carrier and helped her beloved cat sit on her lap.

I walked into the forlorn veterinary clinic, the florescent lights flickered above as the wide doors slid open smoothly. Alone on the long red bench, an elderly woman sat, her only companion was a beautiful white and brown spotted cat; its long tail flicked and twitched quickly, almost irritated. I sat down beside her as she stroked the cats head gently. It truly was a beautiful young cat, long clean fur freshly brushed, and its delicate ears came to a petite, brown point. But I remembered, this is the vet's office. I scanned the animal's lean body; its brown spotted head looked blankly through my body. Violent tremors rippled through his body, jerking painfully. Its paws clawed into his owner's thick sweater in pain; the woman's aged face grimaced. The cat's small head jerked, and twitched incessantly against its own will, growing more violently as its spasm continued. Foamy saliva dripped from his open mouth; his deep green eyes flickered slightly. I looked at the woman; she did nothing but stroke her cat.
"Is he having a seizure?! Should we do something?" i said, unable to watch his painful symptoms any longer.
"No, he's been doing this all day." she said plainly.
I looked away.
"Keiko-dot-Moon? You're next, hon." the nurse called. I walked into the small room as the door closed behind me.

I entered the office, the empty room was now bustling and full, but the elderly woman sat alone, her cat gone, and her head hung low. I waited in line to pay my dues; the nurse called the woman to the counter.
"He'll stay here for tonight, and we'll call you in the morning when he's better, ok?"
The woman nodded and walked slowly out of the wide doors, alone. "I'll be back to see him!" she said.
Three people in front of me, still. The chatter-box nurses stood beside me. "There goes another one," she said, "she wont need to come back for her cat; i saw him myself."
I listened closely.
"Me too, we see these cases more often lately. Those cheep-o over the counter flea control doses are killer."
I perked up at those words, i had just bought flea killer myself.
"That last one was another Hartz victim," she said.
Hartz, i thought i haven't bought that one. "Excuse me," I said, " I over heard you, sorry, but what was wrong with the brown and white cat?"
"His owner had used Hartz flea killer; it pretty much broke down his nervous-system. I don't think he's going to make it."
Curse these nurses; they sugar-coat everything. I looked out the window. The old woman was driving away in her car now, alone. She would not be getting a call to tell her that her baby would be better, and she won't be seeing him one more time. She will not walk through those wide sliding doors again with her faithful companion at her side, ready to comfort her and love her. She would be alone. I thought over the situation. It was not an illness that will take her cat, or old age, but the very medicine she gave her cat to keep him safe, by her own hand. She poisoned him unknowingly, but when news reaches her ears, it will feel like she murdered her own child. My heart ached, and my stomach knotted up. She will be...alone.

Ignorance is bliss they say, until you unknowingly kill your cat. The old woman I witnessed at the veterinary clinic, was one of the many victims of over the counter flea controllers. Flea controls such as Hartz and Sergeant are hazards and murderers to your pets. Millions of people are victims, and they don't even know they are. Before today, I was ignorant and blind to the killing. It took the death of someone's precious cat, of their baby, to educate me.

Don't be ignorant, help educate the victims.

http://www.hartzvictims.org/]