Life Experiences

 Day Forty Nine

Life is about experiences, good or bad they maybe, they are experiences that will shape who you are and who you will become. I have had discussions with friends about life experiences and always wondered why people have more memories of dramatic experiences over the pleasant experiences. If a friend returns from a fantastic holiday, the most detailed stories are those of an issue or some kind of challenge they had to overcome. This blog is a prime example of this, when the times are good, I make a simple comment like “we enjoyed the rest of the day” rather than reporting on the little things we enjoyed that day, of course this would become a boring read if I did that. People need to experience adventure, suspense and hopefully just a little horror, in there life, to keep it engaging. 

The only time I ever crossed a tick in my life is when I was a kid and the family pet had a tick on its head. Until now, Lori has never had to deal with ticks. Both Lori and I are outdoor people, we had all the knowledge on ticks but no experience. A few days ago we discovered a tick on Gizmo, after Lori found one on the back of her leg. We checked the pups thoroughly that day, after I talked Lori out of fire bombing the RV to eradicate anything else, we decided to stick the the walkways and cut grass in front of the RV. 

This morning, Sophie was on my lap, as I was scratching her I felt a small bump behind one of her ears, I  inspected it further and discovered It was a tick. We quickly removed it from her ear and did a thorough inspection of the rest of her, we found two more that were the size of a sunflower seed (without the shell) around her neck. After a in-depth inspection of Sophie, we inspected Gizmo again and found two more on him. This is where experience trumps knowledge, all of our knowledge had led us to understand that ticks waited in tall grass, experience taught us that ticks wait in any height of grass.

Our mission today was to hunt down an English speaking vet for a prescription of Advantix tick control for pets, and to discuss our concerns. It was recommended that we get blood testing for the dogs in six weeks to see if they contracted Lyme disease and to keep the dogs strictly on pathways. We headed back to the RV to apply the Advantix and spent the rest of the day with the pups. Lori has the fumigators coming tomorrow to fumigate the RV.