Oh What a Night...

Oh what a night, all right. I was going to bed last night at about 1.30am, when I found an engorged paralysis tick on Simon's shoulder. Panic Stations! I tore downstairs for the tick brochure on the fridge, then the tweezers, and removed it trying not to squeeze the toxin into Simon. He yelped (I've had one and they are really painful to remove), and gave me the Death Stare. My mind did a fast rewind through the day looking for symptoms - breathing? Ok. Swallowing? Ok. Vomiting? Did I hear someone having a chuck outside about dinnertime?? Walking? Ok. I rang the 24hr Vet and they advised me to keep him as quiet as possible, and watch closely for symptoms over the next day. Also to check for another one - good advice as I found another one in his groin.

The level of co-operation to remove the second one was quite low, as he knew it was going to hurt, and at one stage I thought of waking the neighbours to help me, but after I wrapped a crepe bandage in a figure 8 around his neck and mouth, leaned on him and pulled it off, we were right. He let out another (muffled) yelp, and tried to take off. Luckily I had closed the door, and he was trapped, but I was thinking to myself that he was far from 'kept quiet' during that little procedure. I checked and checked him all over, checked Chloe a few times, then went to bed with the alarm set for every 2 hours through the night.

The bottom line is that we have been very very lucky, and all plans for the weekend have been cancelled so I can stay home and watch him. His normal daily routine consists of sleeping and following me from room to room, so if I leave the room for a quick dash downstairs I just shut the door so he can't follow me.

We have been able to have a big sleep in (awakened every 2 hours), so I am not too exhausted, but I still feel a bit anxious that symptoms could yet develop. What a drama. Made worse of course by the fact that it isn't just a 'jump in the car and off to the Vet' when you live on a small island, but wait til the first Waterbus (4.40 am on a Saturday, 6am on a Sunday) somehow getting 19kg (42lb) of dog down 2 flights of stairs, into the car, out of the car and onto the boat, walk to the car park to get into the other car, then a 15 min drive to the Vet, when he is supposed to be "kept quiet". There is another alternative, as a Vet lives on the next island who will pick you up in her private boat and take you to the Mainland, but it still is quite a carry-on.

So fingers crossed, and to all of you who have pets, anti-tick treatment is worth nothing - examination of the entire dog or cat every day is the only chance you have.

Onto quilting news. Inspired by my new couch and Diary of a Mad Fabriholic, I have started a new quilt. It is hard to get a photo of the couch as it is quite a dark brown, but it is a great improvement on the 40 year old hand-me-down I had, that was in poor repair.

It hasn't been easy to get a photo of these blocks either, as I havent' had them up on the wall yet. Thought some of you might enjoy the sight of a little bit of sunshine in photo 2.

I am using the brownest browns primarily from the Repro stash, with red, mauve and pink centres. I learnt my lesson from the blocks that have the fabric beside the coloured bit around the wrong way, and have since cut them out differently. The blocks are 10 inches finished, so hopefully it will go together quickly. This quilt is to sit on the new couch, providing something to sit on in the hot weather so the backs of the legs don't stick to the leather, to lie under in cold weather, and to keep dog toenails off it, as they will get up on it when my back is turned.

I am enjoying looking at all the blogs that have snow and 'proper Christmas' stuff to look at - it feels hard to get enthused about it in the heat. If you have children I expect it is entirely different. School is out for the summer as of yesterday, so I will have to go and visit my sister's house to get some Christmas Spirit. The family is going there for Christmas this year, so that lets me off the hook for another 12 months. I think my turn must be coming around again.

PS what is going on with my header I just don't know. Last week the frame had gone from around the photo. Now it's back. Then the last word jumped off the photo - now it's back up. Now the photo is to one side of the frame instead of being in the centre. It's not me...