Heart Like a Dog

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

The Watcher In The Woods…Day One Hundred and Thirty Six

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My husband served 6 years in the United States Army as a Military Policeman; he is always vigilant about keeping us safe and has taught me to be vigilant too.  Two Fridays ago, someone was watching me when I took the dogs for their walk.  Fortunately for me, I saw him just about the same time Sampson saw or detected him.  We were in the field when Sampson stopped and looked into the woods; about the same time I reacted to a noise I heard and looking up I saw someone stopped and looking at us.  I wasn’t close enough to describe anything about him, except that he was male and wearing a blue coat.  I was a little nervous but didn’t really concern myself about it; I just made the decision that I would not venture out of the open area into the woods, instead I stayed close to the entrance to the park. 

He continued on his path and then crossed the back of the field; Delilah ran up to him and I called her back.  He continued across the field and made his way to the wooded area on the other side and that’s where he stayed; leaning against a tree; watching me and the dogs.  It freaked me out a little but I knew Chet was on his way, so I wasn’t too worried. 

I saw Chet before the dogs did and began making my way towards him, I greeted him with “There’s someone here.”

“I know” he said, “I saw him as soon as I walked in.”

I filled him in a little bit about what had transpired and by that time,  he (the watcher) had crossed the field again and back onto the trails we normally follow.

I said, “I’d really like to know what he is up to.”

Chet said, “We can follow him.”

So we did.  We got into the woods but just couldn’t catch up to him.  Eventually, we saw him again, but never got close enough to exchange words.

Honestly, I think the person I saw was a kid, a lot of kids go up into the park to smoke dope and drink beer, but since I can’t be 100% positive as to what he was up to, I have to be cautious.   I am now even more vigilant than ever; I turn around every minute or so checking 360 degrees to make sure I am not being followed or watched.  Chet is constantly teaching me, about being vigilant. 

“When you come to an area where there is a drop or cliff, look over it to make sure no-one is hiding there.”

When you come across areas like this, you should look over to make sure no-one is hiding.

 I noticed something the other night while we were hiking;  Delilah looks over the cliff too.  Most days she runs ahead and actually goes down and investigates the area below the cliff.  Delilah has great instincts and I trust her judgment; she is a smart and vigilant trail dog.

Delilah Stone...Always Vigilant

 

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!

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