Dogs and Ticks

A question commonly posed when filling out information about yourself is "are you a dog person or cat person?" Now usually everyone has a preference between dogs and cats. Even though one might prefer dogs over cats, they mostly don't mind being around cats and vis versa. When asked this question a couple of years ago I would have said hands down that I am a cat person. Don't get me wrong, I loved our family dog Penny. There was just something that drew me closer to cats.

If asked that same question today I would say I am definitely a dog person! We have two cats and our puppy. I yell at the cats and pet the puppy. I have come to see that dogs are smarter (if trained well) and way more enjoyable. Dogs need companionship where as cats can get along on their own. Dogs can pick up on emotions of the people they are with. When Addy is crying in the stroller to be picked up, Oakie goes next to the stroller and acts as if he is trying to console her. It is fun to have Oakie and have him follow us around everywhere. He will run after us and follow until we stop, then he will also stop.

I am glad that Oakie is a light cream color, especially for spotting ticks. When ever I see a dark spot on his fur I check it out and make sure it is not a tick. Today I had Oakie out for a little bit, while Addy was taking her morning nap. When we came in I looked and saw a brown spot on his fur. Sure enough it was a tick! I dislike ticks with a passion and there seems to be an over abundance of them here. In order to be sure that I eliminate them I burn them. Normally I squish them in a napkin, go outside and start the napkin on fire until the whole thing has been obliterated. A week or so ago I took this to the next step. There was a tick crawling up the washing machine. I took a match and burned it until all that was left was a black skeleton of a tick. I left a burn mark on the washing machine, just a little one :-).

Well, that's my thoughts on dogs and ticks. Hopefully I don't find anymore ticks anytime soon (which I'm sure I will).