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

 

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!

Wash, Wash, Wash The Dog…Day One Hundred and Thirty One

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There’s a little brook that runs along the side of the field where we take the dogs to play; it’s a dirty little brook but the dogs love it.  They love to run through the brook and occasionally Sampson lays down in it.  I’ve been trying to catch it on video but have been having a hard time with it until today.  I uploaded it to youtube tonight, but let it buffer for a minute or so before watching it; because I’m pretty new to this youtube stuff. (I also got Delilah’s agility run up and the video of how excited Delilah gets when she gets her dinner.

The problem with the dogs running through the brook is they get absolutely filthy!  So every time they go in the brook, we have to wash them off when we get home.  What I started doing was washing them outside.  I take an empty dog shampoo bottle, fill it with warm water and put a squirt of shampoo in it.  We then use the soapy water to wash them quickly and rinse them off with the hose.  Then we dry them off and let them in the house. 

I’m happy that the warmer weather is coming so they aren’t outside freezing, but the water from the hose is still cold!  Although as Chet pointed out, the brook isn’t warm water and they willingly go in there. :-0  Still I am calling the plumber to see how hard it would be to get an outside shower.

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