"I'd like to check you for ticks..."---Brad Paisley

If you would have checked me yesterday, and even this morning you would have found some....let me rephrase that....not some.....A LOT!!! So here goes the story...

Fridays are my day off, and so yesterday I went hiking with a new friend. I wasn't sure about taking Maggie (since she's only 10 1/2 weeks old), but I decided to give it a shot. So, Mags and I got all packed up and drove about an hour south of Florence to meet a friend in Haleyville, AL. Once there, we drove out to the state ground where we would hike. The hike was about 2 1/2 miles, so there was a chance Maggie would get really tired. But they brought backpacks along in case they needed to carry her. So we got there and I fed Mags her lunch before we set out. Well off we went. We decided to not put Maggie on her leash (unless we came to a steep area or ridge), and I'm proud to say that she did AWESOME!!! She had the best time. She always followed the leader, but then would stop after to bit to turn and see if I was coming behind her. She was leary of some logs that she couldn't go under at first, but we'd stand on one side and encourage her to come. She eventually learned to grip with her front paws and jump with her back and made it over a few!

So shortly into the hike, my friend said that he found a seed tick on his hand. I had said that I had put Frontline on Maggie and that she should be okay if they bite her, but little did I know what we were getting into....

We hiked a bit longer and had been going for quite a while and we stopped to rest a bit. Well, we look on our hands and we notice a few seed ticks crawling on us. I then look on my legs and I have A LOT OF SEED TICKS ON ME. I then look around my shoes and THEY ARE ALL OVER MY SHOES!!! Inside my shoes, on my shoe strings, and of course when I take them off, they are all over my socks!!! I was wearing shorts, so I pulled one side up a little bit. Sure enough, they had crawled up my leg and UNDERNEATH MY SHORTS!!! Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but I have had a tick before. You know, a fat black or brown one that's crawling that you can mash and kill the little sucker before he embeds into you? Never in my life have I gotten into seed ticks....they are the tiniest little suckers and they crawl into crevices that 1)they are not welcome in, and 2)they are relentless. So upon finding our new hiking buddies, we decided to turn around and head back. I knew that if I was covered in them, Mags would be also. So upon, tromping back to our beginnings, Maggie was playing and nipping at my ankles. Well, I decided to play back and began to run. So we're both running, and like a graceful, elegant swan....I tripped over a tree root, rolled like I was 007 on a secret mission (it was actually an impressive roll I thought), and sat on my knees in embarassment. So, now am I not only covered in seed ticks, I am also mortified. But I can most always laugh at myself, so I took it in stride. Besides, who hasn't fallen before, right? So with a sore hip, a critter infested wardrobe, a scratching puppy, I climbed in the truck and we headed back to town. Well my friend felt bad (and it was SO okay....not a big deal and not his fault), so he took us back to Haleyville's Walmart. Enroute to Wally World, Maggie had fallen asleep in the front seat and my friends noticed that she had seed ticks crawling all over her sweet little ears and head. Poor Mags!!! So we get to Walmart, get some goods to make this better, and begin to "detick" Mags and ourselves. Bless her heart....she was SO TIRED from the afternoon and was hungry and we begin to poke and prod on her. We found that she had ticks down in between her toes. So let me give you a good visual of this.......I am standing outside a Walmart in Haleyville, AL, barefoot on the nasty gross parking lot asphalt, my friend is holding my dog separating her toes as I pour water from a water bottle on her little feet and begin to shampoo her paws with flea/tick killer shampoo....all while people are slowly driving by looking at us like we were nuts! But let's remember it's small town AL, so they're probably used to it :) Well we take care of Mags, I tried to lint roll some ticks off of my shirt, socks, shoes, etc. (which works pretty well by the way), and then put her in the back of his truck to feed her. I decide to head back into Walmart to use the bathroom and as I pulled down my shorts.....yep, ticks all in my underwear, stuck to my upper thigh, and I knew they had to be on my butt too. I did the best I could with brushing them off, but so many had already stuck that I couldn't. Well, we get back to the Piggly Wiggly parking lot

where I had left my car and Mags and I pack up to head back to Florence. Mags slept the entire way home. Enroute I called Mom and Dad and my dad gave me the seed tick/chiggers killing recipe. I got home put Mags in the back yard, stripped down, and jumped into my hot water bathtub mixture of bleach, soap (which I used Dawn...the closest thing I could grab), and vinegar. I soaked in my tub for 20 minutes, sweating like a Banche, and then showered. I scrubbed with a pumice stone, loofa, as well as shaved my legs, scrubbed my hair 3 times, and still didn't feel like they were off. I scrubbed Mags off, vacuumed out my car, sprayed the inside with tick/flea killer, and vacuumed it again. I washed my clothes, towels and the blanket Mags sat on twice in hot water. Then, I went back for another shower and hair washing myself. After all of that, I still woke up this morning with one of those little boogers crawling in my bed!!! So, I started over again this morning. I took another bleach bath where I found another one crawling on me, as well as one embedded in my chest. I had to dig that sucker out and it hurt! So far I've washed my sheets, my clothes, sprayed Mags down with flea/tick killer spray, bleached her kennel, the utility floor that her kennel sits on, mopped my kitchen floor, and sprayed flea/tick killer on the carpet in front of the patio door where I take her out. I have yet to find anymore since then, but these little suckers are relentless....they're not going down!!!

So the moral/lesson of my Friday afternoon of fun.....if you're going hiking in the woods.......WEAR OFF WITH DEET!!!!!!!!!

But in spite of the new little crawling friends I made....I had fun :)