The alien

June 21.  Well it is official.  The first day of summer and the longest day of the year.  And of course, it's National Daylight Appreciation Day.  Here in Nova Scotia, the sun will rise at 5:28 and set at 9:02.  Of course, it is light out even before 5:28.  That's why we continue to get my human up at 5AM.  No point in wasting a perfectly good day.

So yesterday we met an alien.  That's what I'm calling him.  And my human was totally, completely, thoroughly disgusted and grossed out...

She was petting the FG while she was eating her breakfast.  Breakfast is a one-handed meal - as her non-dominant hand is used to pet the FG.  He pokes her and puts his paw on her arm if she doesn't pet him.  As I have said - he has her VERY well trained.  So she was scratching his ears, and rubbing him under his chin and patting his head and she ran her hand down his side.  And she felt a lump.  A BIG lump.  So she got up and parted the hair on his ribs - and that's when she saw it.  The alien.  A TICK.  The size of an orange.  OK.  Not that big.  Maybe the size of a grape.  OK.  A blueberry.  But STILL - it was the biggest tick she has ever removed.  She whisked him onto the grooming/operating table in the garage and searched for the serious tick removal tool.  It looks like a pair of scissors and it has a magnifying glass on it.  She didn't need the magnifying glass - it was CLEAR what she was dealing with.  She got a hold of the alien and pulled him off.  Then what to do with him?  Last time she smashed a tick intruder into pulp - but this one was big - and she did NOT want to see what inside HIM.  So.  She flushed him.  She cleaned the area and put on some antibiotic cream.  The FG stood like a soldier - he was SO good.  She then took the dryer with the airplane motor - the one that blows enough air to send a chihuahua flying - and checked him all over for any relatives of the alien.  None. 

And in that momentary instant, my human was wishing for a cold snowy day - one without ticks.  But the thought quickly passed - and we'll take the long balmy days of summer. For at least a FEW weeks!

Happy summer!  Have a good one.