Just so you can understand the seriousness of this story, please note that I hate ticks. Like REALLY HATE them. In fact, the first time that I ever got one, I was at Jason's parent's buffalo ranch in Missouri. I was in the shower and saw the tick and immediately started screaming/crying/flailing about while screaming for Jason to come into the room to get it off of me. It is no joke that I still get freaked out about thinking about it. I think I am frightened because you can get Lyme disease from an infected tick. Oh yeah, and it is ATTACHED to your body. Eeeeeeeeek.
Anyhow back to my story...
My friend Gerlinde and I were having our girl's wine night at my apartment tonight. Jason is still in London for work and it was the perfect evening to spend some time with a dear friend to laugh and catch up. We had nearly finished our bottle of wine and were looking through the amazing memory book that Jason made and gave to me on our wedding day. Jack was laying with me and I was petting him. I looked down and noticed that some of his hair was in his eyes. I pushed it back and noticed that something was right under his eye. It appeared to be flesh colored and hard. It almost looked like a wart or something. I showed Gerlinde, thinking it was his skin that was raised and she told me that it was just a very full tick. I immediately pushed Jack aside and we both screamed (don't worry, no animals were injured in the making of this story). Not knowing what to do, I called Joe (another American expat that lives down the street) and Gerlinde called her boyfriend. Neither were available to remove said tick and Gerlinde's boyfriend found it hilarious that we were making such a fuss about such a small pest. I know that when removing the tick you have to remove the whole thing (especially it's head) and leave nothing behind while also making sure not to squish the tick , otherwise blood would go everywhere. That's a lot of pressure! After we calmed down and re-evaluated the situation, I realized that I just couldn't do it. Gerlinde told me to get tweezers and that if I held Jack and moved his hair away from the tick, she would remove it. After another gulp of wine, we performed the operation and removed the tick and boy was he FULL. Gerlinde said she had never seen a tick that big. Poor Jack. We removed the tick without a problem and immediately threw it off of our balcony (I hope no one was walking under us and it didn't land on someone's head!!). We put anti-septic spray on Jack's bite. Then I gave poor Gerlinde a shot of Petron and we sat down on the sofa and just laughed. I'm still feeling a bit itchy just thinking about it.
So there you have it, the Great Big Austrian Tick Adventure.
xx
P.S. Please note that the picture was taken after Gerlinde saved the day, shot of Petron in hand. I'm not sure what Jack and I would have done without her.
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