Wednesday, April 14, 2010

From Ticks to Skunks: You gotta love your pets

I live in rural Indiana and this time of year the ticks become plentiful. This year they are especially bad. Yesterday morning I looked down at my plate of scrambled eggs and toast and saw a tick walking across my plate. Ewww. Abby's long fur is a wonderful place for them to hitch a ride in.
Angel is old and losing her vision so she doesn't roam far from the house. It was easy to put the flea and tick repellent on her.
This one is Zyla. This is a pic from last summer so she's filled out since then. Zyla was a rescue from the shelter. I don't know what happened to her before she reached the shelter as a puppy but she has "issues." Everything frightens her. It took my son and I 20 minutes using the choke collar (which I hate) to get the flea and tick drops applied between her shoulder blades! Yesterday started with the tick in my breakfast and ended last night with Zyla having her first run in with a skunk. The poor thing got sprayed full in the face. I can't let her in until we get rid of the smell. I mixed up a batch of the homemade skunk smell remover recommended by the vet but the dog is terrified of water, washcloths, anything different from her normal. Hubby is bringing home an all natural product we can use straight from the bottle...if we can get close enough. Wish me luck!

2 comments:

DLSarmywife said...

Oh geez...um...good luck with Zyla, hopefully your can get her deskunked wihtout to much trauma to either of you!

De said...

Thanks, Deborah. Thinking of you as you settle in to the new routine while hubby is away. Just want you to know how much we appreciate your and his sacrifice. My hubby is a former Marine.