From:  Dixie Davis
To: johnny at charm.net
Date: Aug 25, 2006 8:55 PM
Subject: There's nothing quite so satisfying.......


as the popping noise a tick makes as you squeeze it between your
fingernails, causing the blood to splurt out violently.

There are many different types of ticks, in the vicinity of 250
varieties, Mom told me. Way back when, before most people speutered
their dogs, back when dip and sevin dust were the only half-way
effective flea and tick control (and you didn't really want your kids
crawling on dogs that had been dipped in poison), we picked ticks off
dogs. We had female dogs, and the neighbors about 5 miles down the
road had male dogs, so when our female dogs would come into heat, we
got the neighbors' male dogs, too. Coming up through the brush,
following the Scent of a Woman (or is that Scent of a Bitch?), they
would arrive at our place absolutely covered with ticks. (Fleas, too,
but we didn't bother picking fleas off the neighbors' dogs. Too many,
too hard.) We would pick ticks and pop them on the porch, till  the
porch was covered in blood and I had to get the hose to wash all the
blood off.

There are the light brown ticks that swell up with blood, becoming
almost round balls with tiny legs sticking out. They make a very
satisfying pop, but those you pop under your feet because they're big
enough to pop effectively with your shoes, and you'd get too much
blood on your hands were you to pop them with your hands.

The little flat dark brown ones are difficult to pop. It's hard to
pop them--you've got to squish them between a fingernail and a hard
surface, or tear them apart with  your fingers, which is kind of hard
because they're rather small.

But there's a kind of tick I don't remember from my childhood, and
boy, are they ever plentiful now! I don't know if they're properly
called seed ticks, though they do look a bit like a poppy seed or
something. They're tiny blue ticks. They like to get in between toes,
but they also like to attach themselves anywhere on the body.

The stuff Mom's been putting on the dogs to kill the fleas and ticks
has cut down on the flea population but left the tick population
booming. So with her 3 little dogs, Mom will sit down, pick the dog
up on her lap, and start tick hunting. I joined her, sitting
opposite, leaning over, holding half the dog with my hands and knees,
while Mom had the other half of the dog in her lap. Mom had the tick
jar on a small end table nearby. She'd take a tick, usually with
tweezers since the neuropathy in her hands makes it difficult for her
to latch on to one with her fingers, and drop it in the tick jar, in
which they drown in alcohol.  So Mom and I had some mother-daughter
quality bonding time, picking ticks off dogs, this last week.

I took the 3 small dogs to Pleasanton in my truck. I'd drive with one
hand, while putting my hand around one, kind of massaging it till I
felt a small blue tick, then squeezing the tick between my thumb and
forefinger (these are soft enough to pop with
thumbnail-against-flesh.) I arrived in Pleasanton with a bloody hand.

Cowboy, Mom's Dane, had a couple of small strokes this week. When the
first one struck Monday, Mom called and I came down and took Cowboy
to the vet. I picked Cowboy up on Tuesday and helped him into my
truck's front seat (it's really cool, driving around sharing the
front seat of a truck with a Great Dane.) Since Cowboy was in such a
convenient position up on the truck seat, I took the opportunity to
pick ticks, squishing many of them against my dark red, truck,
covering the red paint with tick blood. Cowboy eventually grew tired
of my endeavors, so I took him home.

My sister's kids are growing up on military bases and in the cities.
She doesn't bring them to the ranch very often, and I don't think
they appreciate all the nuances of ranch life. Bored? Never! Most
ranches have at least 5 to 10 dogs, so there's always a dog that
needs ticks picked off it.
Dixie
--
Dixie L. Davis
CorgiDane Rescue     www.corgidane.petfinder.com
www.1800saveapet.com