More About Poison Ivy

If you see a plant that's not grass and not a tree, it's poison ivy. If it's green, or red, or yellow, it's poison ivy. If it's a huge bush or a vine or a little sprout on the ground, it's poison ivy. If it's big twiggy dead-looking shell of a bush in the winter, it's poison ivy. If the leaves are curvy and blistered at the beach, it's poison ivy. If the leaves are smooth-edged or notched like an oak tree, it's poison ivy. Don't believe me? http://poisonivy.aesir.com/view/pictures.html

When you might have been in contact with it, you have to put your clothes right into the washer - before you sit on your furniture. Wash them in warm, soapy water. Take a long cool shower (to close the pores) to wash off all the toxin. Wash your pets who were outside or they can spread the toxin around on you. Wash the clothes that your poison ivy clothes touched. Basically, just wash everything and keep on washing it for ever and ever amen. Wash the covering of the chair that your dog sits in if she's ever sat in it before a bath after a romp in the woods. Wash the sheets if you got into bed before a shower after being around poison ivy (which is to say: outside). Maybe this is because you are totally exhausted after, say, an incident you just had. Very important: do not lean into and rub your face all over the face of the big lug of a dog that insists on standing on the console between the front seats of the car, even if you are glad to be driving him home after you thought you might not get him back. Because if you do you could have some serious itching in the inner corners of your eyes. And you can know what it is and be dreading the hell out of what is coming.

Of course, I have to go to work now, but tonight I need to: wash the dogs' harnesses, my sheets, my towels. This is disgusting.