About a week or two ago, Rob says to me, “We need to give the animals something to protect them against the ticks.”  It hadn’t even occurred to me that we needed to do that.  He said, “Humid area, no lawn mower, mild winter equals a tick problem.”  Okay, so I say, no worries, I have a couple of applications of Frontline for the cat and dog each.  I retrieve the VERY expensive, can only be bought at the Vet, Frontline, from the cabinet and give an application to Casey.  Rob had to hold him down, as he gets VERY excited when someone touches him!  It’s one thing I love about him, but when I’m trying to train him, give him a bath or apply Frontline to him it’s not so fun.  And Gizmo, well, he was outside at the time and either 1) couldn’t hear me or 2) was ignoring my calls.  I left his Frontline on the coffee table thinking, “If I see it out, it’ll remind me that I need to give this to him.”  Yeah, no such luck because Rob ended up putting it away, thinking that I had ALREADY given him his treatment.  I hadn’t.

So, it’s about 11 pm last night and I trot off to bed to read a few chapters in my book.  I had to come back down because I forgot my phone charger and I called for Gizmo to come in.  He was obedient 🙂  I go back up and lay down.  After a few chapters, I’m feeling a little sleepy, and I go to turn out the light and Gizmo climbs up and starts to snuggle.  So, I lean over and start to pet him, when I realize he’s got an engorged tick in between his eye and ear.  I’m disgusted at this point and I look a little closer to see if it’s red or not.  I can’t tell, but he’s already freaked out, so he jumps down.  I turn out the light and decide that I’ll take care of it in the morning.  So, I laid there for about an hour and decide that I’m going to pick up my iPhone and look up ticks.  Don’t know how long that bugger was there, but everything that I read said that it needs to be removed immediately.  So, I get up, go to the bathroom, turn on every light in the house and Rob wakes up at that exact moment.  “Baby?  Is everything okay?” he shouts from the top of the stairs.  “Gizmo’s got a tick on him.”  Rob goes back to bed. 

I was downstairs getting the Frontline and a pair of tweezers.  Gizmo followed me and while I was breaking out the applicator, he decided that he was hungry.  I grabbed him and forcefully applied the Frontline but I’m not sure if it was a superficial application or not.  I’m thinking, “Okay, I’ve put the medicine on him, that tick will fall right out in a couple of hours.”  So, I lay in bed, not sleeping and I’m still reading about ticks on my phone.  Gizmo comes back to bed and the tick is still there.  I rush BACK downstairs to grab the tweezers and something to put it in.  From what I was reading, putting them in alcohol will kill them instantly, so I fill a small bowl with some wine that was opened.  I rushed back upstairs and Gizmo was not so agreeable with me taking the tick off of his head.  I held him in a funky way, I’m actually surprised that he didn’t bite me or something.  I heard a tiny pop as I was pulling out the engorged tick and placed it in the wine.  He wasn’t wiggling or anything when I got it out.  I’m not sure if I got the head out or not.  I can only assume that I did, because I saw what looked like a little tiny head and 6 legs. 

I head back to bed and Gizmo joins me and I’m petting him, whispering that he was such a good cat and that I was only doing it for his own good, when I think I feel another tick.  I run back down stairs to get the tweezers again and I’m trying to locate the tick and Gizmo is NOT happy this time and won’t allow me to touch him.  He walks over to Rob and lays between his legs, hoping that I will not disturb Rob.  I get up, walk over to the other side of the bed and I’m trying to find this tick.  I never did find it.  Gizmo got pretty upset with me and growled fairly loudly and ran off.  He didn’t come back to bed, to my knowledge.

I’m laying there, thinking, I need to get some sleep, but I can’t sleep because I’m thinking that there might be other ticks in the bed and I’m kicking around, my skin is crawling and everything seems to be itching.  So, I get up AGAIN and strip and search to see if I have any ticks on me.  I was out in the grass helping Rob cut it with a scythe earlier in the day.  I notice that there’s a little red spot under my breast and I’m freaking out.  Did I have a tick on me and I didn’t even notice?  What is this red bump?  I won’t post a picture of it, but it is a little freaky, especially since I had been reading about ticks for like 3 hours last night.  Come to think of it, I have been feeling quite nauseous that evening (probably from the LARGE mint chocolate ice cream shake that I had eaten hours before) and my muscles have been really achy esp in my back (probably from the scything that I had done earlier in the day)!  Oh my goodness, do I have “Tickborne Encephalitis“?

As I’m fully aware of every square inch of my skin at the moment, I was NOT going to be getting any sleep!  After running scenarios in my head for an hour or so, I finally drifted off, only to be woken up less than an hour later by Rob to tell me that he’s not going to be coming home until late this evening.  I barely open my eyes and give him a kiss goodbye and I dozed back to sleep.