Ticks Already

Last night just before I went to bed I found a little tick on the bathroom floor. Kabira had just run in from outside so I guess it fell off her. We caught it on a piece of damp tissue and trapped it in a ziplock bag. It is still running around inside looking for a way out. I wanted to keep it for a bit so that I could get a good ident on the web today. I gave the dogs a quick check over, but the tick was so small I would be lucky (or is that unlucky) to find one on them. Fast forward to today - after our walk this morning I found something small crawling around on Spike but squished it too much to identify it.

doesn’t it give you the heebie-jeebies just to look at these photos!

Needless to say I spent a good part of my night awake with my skin crawling. And when I did fall asleep I was quickly awakened by nightmares of ticks on me. At one point my shouting to turn on the lights woke me up! So now here we are... do I get the drops for the dogs, which will kill the tick once they bite. But since they can walk around their host for up to 4 hours before biting (and in that time may fall off onto me) what good is that? One website mentioned tick collars. Do they work? Are they dangerous for the dogs? Or perhaps the risk of Lyme disease offsets any risk? Or maybe my peace of mind (and not having my sleep patterns disrupted) make it well worth the risk? Or do we do both?

Did everyone celebrate St. Patrick's Day with a pint of Guinness? We didn't... but the bubbles we had came out of a green bottle - does that count?

Pleasures:
1. being "here" back from the grey abyss - there are pleasures to be had again
2. bouquet of yellow tulips brought over by a friend. They are like yellow sunshine in my house
3. bare tree branches against a moonlit sky
4. being outside early in the morning and listening to the cacophony of sound - all the bird song was almost deafening
5. sharing a bottle of bubbles with Carm, along with a little piece of steak and some perfectly grilled zucchini
6. windows open – it’s 24C (75F) in March!!!!
7. sitting outside in the sun with Grace. She was smiling in that special way that parrots have

“My dog is usually pleased with what I do, because she is not infected with the concept of what I “should” be doing.” — Lonzo Idolswine