Large Fierce Mammal

Milo on sovereignty patrol, being vigilant even though we’re temporarily paused for a break. Nearly 15, mostly deaf, but everything else still works fine. Even if I have to be his ears, and with no aspersions cast upon the beautifully talented and long lamented Cinders, he’s still the best tracking Dog I’ve ever worked with. Click the picture to enlarge. (LFM Photo)

“Ticks are not new news, nor are they vaguely understood supernatural beings, and why what gets put out there for public education, even from “official” sources, veers more toward being lore than fact has always been a mystery to me.

“Here in Nova Scotia, the predominant Tick species are the Dog Tick, and the Black Legged or Deer Tick, and both are common in our own personal woods and environs. While any Tick is the repository of many a vile microbe, only the Black Legged Tick is known to carry the bacteria that causes Lyme Disease.

“As Spring approaches, the thoughts of those who frequent fields and wooded areas, and particularly of those who travel there with Dogs, invariably go to the dreaded Black Legged Tick. In truth, vigilance and precautions should actually be a 12 month practice. I have personally removed Dog Ticks from my Dogs in February after a day afield that never made it above -20 degrees Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit).” ~ Ticks: Threat or Menace?

The veil between the realms of the living and the dead may thin to permeability on All Hallows’ Eve, but something many still don’t know is that Ticks are out there questing for blood all the year through, and they don’t care about no stinkin’ veils!

Tonight’s Dark Sentiment is a short and startling dose of reality straight from the LFM Fortress of Solitude. Milo, pictured above sporting more grey on his face than the jet black of earlier days (not unlike myself, with slight accommodations to colour and coverage) has a tendency to accumulate more ticks of a day than any Dog I’ve ever known. Removing them usually falls to Mrs. LFM whose attentions he seeks in the matter, and then stands patiently throughout the procedure in anticipation of her indulgence of his one peculiar fetish (in no way surprising to me as she has always happily indulged every one of mine).

I would hasten to add that there is no motive of vengeance inherent in any of this, but if I had to put a slant on Milo’s happy barking at the conclusion of it all, I’d nod in the direction of Val Kilmer’s Doc Holliday —

And now, on to tonight’s tasty morsel of snack time rhyme.

Tick Tock

By LFM

Of all among our Doggy host,
The Ticks love Milo’s taste the most.
My Wife deploys the twisty pluckers
And then she lets him eat the fuckers.