Plague of the Ticks Part 1

I'm pretty sure if God needed an 11th plague to facilitate the Exodus, He could've used ticks.

Ticks probably went to the plague audition.

Stood in line.

Maybe even camped out in tents.

They went through the audition.

Just didn't make the cut.

Something about locusts being a little more dramatic.

Dejected, they decide to pick themselves up and find a new job.

"It's ok," they tell themselves, "there's a whole world of dogs out there. And once we get on one and get in a house, we'll be set for life. No worries, fellas. Let's go find ourselves a furry friend!"

And that's where our story picks up.

Although, as they say, hindsight is always 20/20, so let's back up a little and highlight what we should've seen.

About two months ago, Abi was laying by the garage door, got up and moved to another room.

I walked by about 5 minutes later and said "Ew. What is that bug?"

Matt looks at it and says "It looks like a giant tick. One that's filled with blood."

I advise him to squish it to see if it has blood in it so we'll know.

He does.

It does. (Hindsight me now knows never to squish a tick.)

I google tick photos.

I find one that matches.

Yep, we have a tick.

Gross.

Enter mistake #1.

We don't think another thing about it.

What I should've done is spent more time on google reading what a tick in your house means. (That's hindsight me talking.)

Nope.

Didn't do it.

Never crossed my mind.

Fast forward.

I'm in the living room working on a project and drop a piece of paper on the rug.

I pick it up and notice these teeny, tiny little bugs crawling on the white paper.

Weird.

I drop another piece of paper, pick it up and more bugs.

Really weird.

I drop another piece of paper on purpose. More bugs.

Gross.

I google it.

Maybe spider mites?

Hmm.

Now that I think about it, I've seen these little bugs almost every time I've swept the floor lately.

Whatever. No biggie, right?

I vacuum.

Enter mistake #2.

I don't think anything else of it. Mention to Matt there are weird bugs in our rug and move on.

Abi starts itching. A lot.

We think maybe fleas.

I go out and buy flea and tick shampoo and we give her a bath.

Seems to help.

Mistake #3.

We assume we had fleas and the problem is under control. Nevermind that we didn't see any fleas.

Mistake #4.

We go to Colorado and take Abi on a hike.

She has a great time.

We talk about ticks.

We don't check her for them. (She was already the biggest tick farm known to man at this point, but we didn't even look. Where was hindsight me when I really needed me?)

We take the long drive home.

I notice little spots on the sheet where her head's laying. Maybe it's dirt (nope . . . blood spots. Hindsight me finds this out later. Hindsight me is a lot wiser and more traumatized than pre-hindsight me.)

And then y'all, it happened.

It was big.

And it was gross.

What exactly?

Well, you'll just have to come back later to find out.

I know, I know.

I hate cliffhangers too.

But this post is too long already and we're just getting started.