hurl factor

if there's some kind of gross-out threshold, I think i reached it today. i was looking at the floor and noticed a grey, rubbery looking thing, roughly the size of a large jelly bean . thinking it was, oh, i don't know -- a piece of rubber, maybe, I picked it up to throw it away... and noticed that it had legs. little black legs and a little head protuding out of a grotesquely swollen body. a grotesquely swollen tick body. yes, tick. as in wood-tick. i screamed, dropped it and then stared at it. i had to get rid of it, but i didn't want to touch it, and my gag reflex was already starting to kick in just by looking at it. i grabbed a trusty baby wipe and tried to pick it up without feeling it's fat squishyness between my fingers, and disposed of it in the toilet.

then i went back and examined the carpet carefully for any more of the horrid things. i swear to God, i'm not letting the dogs (the most likely source) in the house in anymore. i don't think i could have possibly seen anything more disgusting or disturbing.

i told nick, but apparently they don't have wood-ticks in england, and he apparently didn't understand why it was so traumatic for me to find a woodtick of that magnatude in THE HOUSE. I don't think he realized that it was so engorged with blood that it was that size, because he said I couldn't just blame the dogs; it could have gotten in some other way.

hmmmmm.... like by rolling in?

warning to pet owners: if you dog is covered in thick, shaggy fur, no doubt it has become a haven for ticks, that will turn your dog into a walking blood bank until which time they become so engorged that they fall off and just lie where they have fallen, unable to move. your best course of action is to a.) completely shave your pet, or b.) immerse them in a flea/tick solution, or c.) spend lots of money to fight a losing battle against fleas and ticks.

at any rate, its tick season... beware.