On May 16th Deana found a dog tick on Anabelle’s head.  This was the second tick in two weeks, the first being a deer tick I found on her neck on May 3rd.  I know ticks are par for the course in the Hudson Valley, but both incidents were unnerving and definitely challenged my sense of safety and comfort.  I removed each tick (calmly and skillfully), despite Anabelle’s anxiety and fear.  She was so brave.  My anger with the first tick led me to destroy it by fire.  With this dog tick, I felt it better to hold on to it in case Anabelle got sick.  This way we could send it off for testing in hopes of diagnosing whatever she had.   If you enlarge the photo you can see a little brown spot in the jar.  That’s the tick.

This little bastard survived almost 2 months in this jar living off of air and a little bit of water.  It died a couple of days ago (at least I think it’s dead).  Anabelle hasn’t shown any symptoms so far, so I think we’re in the clear (at least I hope).

So it’s time to get rid of this dog tick, but I have plans for it beyond just tossing the jar in the trash. More to come on that….