4 - 4 Ticks On My Dog -Ha, Ha, Ha,

I awoke to my 9 yr. old son announcing that our dog had some slimy bulby thing on her side. What? Seriously, a grape sized bulb like thing. A tick!! The first I have ever seen!!

Back up with the story a bit..... Last week we cleared out the space under our 2 huge Redwoods. Lots of logs, wood, stones, rock, etc. Rototilled, placed rocks and put in plantings. It's the shadiest place in the yard and our dog loves sitting under the trees.

Well we must have upset the small microcosm under the redwoods. Since last week we saw ticks crawling on boys 1& 2, dad, and mom. Yuck!

I was completely yucked out. This is a part of adulthood that I don't like. I needed my Dad,Mom, or StepMom (all three have no qualms with bugs, spiders, etc.) to take care of this situation and fast.

At least I could usually wimp out and ask MSH (my sweet husband) to solve this nasty situation. But he's out of town. 7:45am I'm calling my neighbor, Peggy, to beg for help. She pulls out the first tick.

I'm not lying when I say that I was freaking out. A few tears were shed about the prospect of dealing with ticks this week. I was the first call to the vet and the Hardware store. Basically I asked for : "Anything to get rid of these ticks without harming my family, dog, or chickens!" I already use Frontline on my dog but quickly discovered I was a week late on her application.

Within the next hour we found 3 more. Apparently, I needed to "suck it up" and become as tough as my Mom, Dad and StepMom. I did it. 3 more ticks pulled off from the dog.

Just to ease my conscience, and get the "creepy crawling" feelings away, I vacuumed again (daily now), washed all sheets and pillows, completely checked all kids and dog head to toe and refused to let anyone outside until the tick spray works(a close to organic option - although at this point I don't really care as long as it kills every single nasty tick in the universe).

Blah!!! I'm still creeping out but I'm tougher for the experience and no longer afraid of the unknown. My Mom, Dad, Step Mom and MSH will all laugh at my wimpy behavior but I hope they'll be proud that I overcame it and moved on!!