Tick experiences

It likely was 1980 or so and we were walking on a trail through one of the California state parks along the ocean. I noticed blood dripping from my 5 year old son's ear and stopped the group to see what it was. I had imagined a twig on a branch had caught on my son's ear but no, it was a tick that we had to remove before it went in deeper into the top of his ear.

Another true story: we were walking on a different park (likely in the early to late spring) and this would have to have been in the 1990s because my son was a grown up then (he's in his 40s now) and my two youngest daughters were likely under 10 years of age and one of us found a tick on our clothing.

So, as a precaution we all starting groping around in our clothes for ticks. What was horrifying was that we found 18 ticks between us all that day. There were likely 5 of so of us pretty unhappy removing articles of clothing to make sure we got them all away from any part of our bodies.

These are my two worst tick stories but every spring I have to watch now for my two dogs that they don't get ticks that burrow in too far. But, mostly if you give your dogs a regular tick medicine they mostly will stay away from your dogs. But, you have to find a medicine that doesn't make your dogs sick too which can be hard.