Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

Stuck On You…Day One Hundred and Thirty Five

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I feel lately this blog has become all about ticks.  Ticks are disgusting and vile and I want to blog about them one more time and then put this subject to rest, permanently.

I found a tick on Delilah last night, we were on our way back from our hike and I looked at her face and sure enough, there was a tick on the side of her nose.  I tried to remove it in the car, but the tick had already embedded itself so we had to wait until we got home.

Once we were home we kept the dogs outside, and I went and got my Ticked Off.   The Ticked Off is much easier to use on a couch potato like Sampson, than a wiggle worm like Delilah.  Sampson’s was on his chest and very easy to get to.  Delilah’s was on her nose and not so easy.

Either I didn’t have the Ticked Off positioned correctly or I didn’t have the skin tight enough, but I think I left the head of the tick in the skin; because 1) the tick didn’t move when I removed it and 2) Delilah has a big bump on her nose where the tick was.

You cant see it in the picture, but there is a bump there!

I put some Neosporin on her nose, but as you can imagine this kept me up a good portion of last night, worrying about what might happen to Delilah with the head of a tick embedded in her nose.   I researched it this morning and that is what I want to share here with you today, and then let’s put this topic to bed.

Big Dog Boutique says, you can either take your dog to the vet (expensive) to have the tick removed, or you can clean the area with rubbing alcohol, the body will form a hard protective bump around the “foreign object”  and the natural growth and shedding of skin will remove the tick head after a period of time.  You can speed the process up by applying Vitamin E to the bump.  As of now this is our course of action, I will continue with the Neosporin until I get the Vitamin E.  I will keep a watch on her nose to make sure it doesn’t get infected. I am upping their garlic intake and purchasing some Earth Animal Bug Off spray because I know it works better than this Neem Oil stuff.

On another “stuck on you” theme, check out this picture I took of Sampson this afternoon after he went diving in the stream.

Yes, a leaf is stuck between his eyes!

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is…Day One Hundred and Thirty Four

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First I want to thank you all for your comments and suggestions regarding yesterday’s blog.  I do think about what you say and they do help.

Second I want to caveat this blog with this thought…if you are squeamish, you may not want to look at the pictures.  No it’s not bloody, just (in my opinion) really gross.

Yesterday I got a message from my friend Laura who was recently rescued by a dog. 

 “HELP – it appears Candy has managed to get a tick or two – how do we take them out?????” 

So I calmly told her what she needed and how to remove the tick.  Candy update, they had to give her a Benadryl to calm her down but did manage to remove the ticks.

Flash forward to this morning as I’m singing Sampson his morning wake-up song and giving him his rubbies, I come across an engorged tick on his chest, and I panicked!  Eeeuuuh, this is gross.  I ran around trying to gather all of the items I needed to remove the tick.  As soon as I ran out of the bedroom they ran after me, thinking…yipee she’s going to feed us.  That didn’t happen, at least not right away.

I gathered the necessary items (my first thought was to put the tick into the alcohol, but then I thought it would be better to put the tick in a plastic baggie in case it required testing.)  In my blog about having a “tick kit” I mentioned the “Ticked Off” and I said, it works very well.  Truthfully, I’ve NEVER had to use it to remove a fully engorged tick; I’ve always caught the ticks early and removed them BEFORE they blew up.  I was a little nervous about taking the tick off and of course Chet had already left for work.  There was nothing else for it; I needed to take this sucker (literally) off.   Ok decision made, breathe.  I took my little Ticked Off tool and removed the tick!

Look at that fat, nasty S.O.B!

I am here to tell you “Ticked Off” is the best thing EVER invented!  That sucker came off with ease.  He/she (really do they have a defined sex?) was so fat and bloated from sucking on my dog that it could barely move.  It looks like a small jelly bean…with legs.  (Ok, so now I can’t finish the jelly belly beans that I got from Stephanie’s baby shower. )  I transferred the tick to the plastic bag and then I took one of the little ticks (unbloated) from our last tick episode and put them side by side for comparison.

Seriously, look at that fat, gluttonous bastard! It's at least 25 times its normal size!!

Didn’t the alcohol preserve the little one nicely? 🙂

In order to be proactive, I called the vet.  I was assured that while this tick may transmit some types of diseases, it is a common dog tick and does not transmit Lyme Disease.

It’s still gross though; and I don’t know that I can ever eat another jelly bean!

Join Me in My Pity Party…Day One Hundred and Thirty Three

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Generally I try to be a very positive person, but trying to get this writing career of mine off the ground is really discouraging me.  Please don’t get me wrong, I have some very awesome friends and family who continue to read every day, to like my posts and to comment on my blog and I appreciate you more than I will ever be able to express.  Some day if I ever get my career off the ground, I intend to have a really big party and invite you all! 

I like to think I am a realistic person, I know I am not J.K. Rowling and I certainly don’t have a Harry Potter novel in me; I think I’m capable of being a writer and making a modest living at it.  I am not one of the people who think they are perfect, in fact I am very aware of my flaws and limitations and have no problem sharing those.  I am also not a mother who thinks her children can do no wrong and that extends to my dogs; as you obviously know if you have ever read anything I have written about Delilah.

So when I tell you that Sampson is special and that I want to share him with the world, it is not just my thoughts or ideas.  Anyone that meets Sampson falls in love with him; even if you are not a dog person you will love Sampson.  Besides being adorable, his personality is amazing and it terrifies me that he is getting older and I still have not shared him with enough people. 

My Sweet Boy.

I’m not writing this so you all say, “Oh Jodi, don’t give up, you are a good writer” and all kinds of other stuff.  Why I’m writing this is to get your ideas.  So far, I’ve established facebook pages for both of the dogs, I have this blog and I have Sampson’s website, the problem is I don’t know what to do next or how to generate interest.   When I went to the Pet Writing Conference in February there was a woman there who was trying to find someone interested in her book, she was showing someone,  her dog has over 5,000 friends on facebook.  I sit here and go WTF?  Everyday I update those facebook pages!  I put funny sayings and thoughtful sayings and Sampson has lost 4 fans in the last month!  I guess I feel like I’m at an impasse and I wonder, am I too focused?  Am I overlooking something I should/could be doing? 

You all have been so supportive of me and always help me when I ask, so I ask you now, do you have any thoughts as to what I can do to help move this along?  If you aren’t comfortable leaving a message, send me an e-mail auntiejodi@hotmail.com

Thanks for reading and sticking through this pity party blog.

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