hardwood floors: This is a problem with varying solutions.  If you don't own
the house, slide a piece of furniture over it and hope the landlord doesn't
notice it until you get your deposit back.  People have been known to rip
out hardwood floors and throw them away because of animal stains.  I once
found a description of a "spot refinishing" method for animal stain on Deja
News.  I think the woman stripped the entire floor, then treated the stain
with some sort of bleaching agent, then refinished the floor.  This is a
very ambitious undertaking.  Just do a search under "hardwood pets" or
something like that, and it should turn up.  I think you can also hire a
professional to strip and refinish just a piece of your floor, but very few
will do it.  That kind of work is an art.  (If you can't find it, email me
privately and I'll see if I can dig it up.)
 
If you don't have a very bad stain, would it help to strip the wax?  I like
the Bruce products for that purpose.
 
On fleas: I have lived in houses with pets and at various times fleas for
maybe a total of fifteen years and I can't recommend strongly enough getting
the whole mess over with by flea bombing.  I know it's unappealing, with the
chemicals and all (and you'll be watching yourself for "Gulf War Syndrome"
for weeks after), but I promise once it's done you'll wonder why it took you
so long to do it.  We combined bombing (done twice two weeks apart as per
instructions) with indoor boundary spray and intensive laundry washing and
flea baths all around.  What a relief!  No more itching.  No more vile ugly
little insects.  If you're truly not comfortable with the bomb, ask your vet
about using something like Program and do some really intensive
house-cleaning (wash everything in the hottest water possible, put some flea
powder in your vacuum bag and vacuum everything, etc.) I would rather spend
a little extra money and time up front than bathe them all every week myself
(which adds up in the long run because you never really get rid of them
all).  Remember, there's NO kill like OVERKILL.
 
Good luck,
Catherine
Sebastian "We request our subjects to please bring us a raisin
souffle--hold the eggs."
Mortimer "Oh, look at this little rubber ducky.  He is lonely.  I will
love him and pet him and hold him and..."
Mithril--"I got an idea.  Wanna play?  Huh huh?  I said, 'Wanna play?'
Damn you!  PLAY WITH ME!  CHOMP!"
[Posted in FML issue 1786]