This week has been all about receiving deliveries; another raw food order for the hounds, the ultrasonic toothbrush has arrived, 
plus the new telescopic dog ramp (as mentioned in a previous blog!). Fortunately, the deliveries have been made while I've been at home grooming. Normally they arrive in the lunchtime period when I am out walking. I swear the drivers wait around the corner until they see me go out!
The other subject I want to talk about this week is ticks. I know, last week it was fleas, this week ticks. Pesky little blighters and the reason I've been having recurring nightmares! Giant ticks invading my home or waking up and finding I'm literally covered head to foot in the little bleeders. I really shouldn't read about these sorts of things before going to bed! Honestly though, what are they for? Horrible little things, gorging themselves on warm blood. Attaching themselves to anything that they can eat blood from. I do hope you're not eating your dinner while reading this!
Seriously though, on Tuesday there was an item on the Jeremy Vine show (yes I'm too old for any other radio station than Radio 2 now!) and Matt Dawson the ex-Rugby player was bitten by a tick in a Chiswick Park and ended up needing heart surgery! So you see you don't have to be in the middle of a forest to be bitten and infected with Lyme Disease. I do hate the way that because a celebrity gets it, it's a media frenzy and all of a sudden it's a big problem, however it does at least make us more aware of this awful parasitic disease. The symptoms of Lyme are extremely hard to diagnose and difficult to then treat. I know of a fellow Groomer who had Lyme for months before finally getting a diagnosis and the longer it is left, the more debilitating it is. I've heard of people literally being paralysed by it. As I said last week about the fleas, prevention is definitely better than cure in this case for sure. 
We take lots of precautions for our dogs against ticks, but we should also think about protecting ourselves. I'm one of the worst culprits for this because I wear shorts everywhere from May to October. Really if you're walking in woods, forest or even longer grass, you should wear long trousers and closed in shoes. Check yourself over after every walk and of course check over your dog. If you find a tick on your dog or yourself, do not attempt to remove it without using a proper Tick Twister Remover Tool (you can buy these relatively cheaply from most pet shops, Vets or online). Don't believe all these old wives tales about putting Vaseline on it or rubbing it with alcohol or even burning it with a lighter! They won't work and you'll risk leaving some of the tick under the skin and then you have big problems. The Tick Twister removes the whole thing and you'll know if you've got the whole thing because you'll see its legs still moving. I like to squash the blighters between a piece of kitchen towel but then make sure you're wearing gloves to avoid any of it getting into your skin. If you're not confident to do this yourself, ask your Vet or Groomer to do it. There will be a small lump on the site of the bite for a few days but that doesn't necessarily mean you haven't got it all out. From now on I'll be spraying myself with the Neem Oil that I use on the hounds before each walk!
Euwwww anyway, lets talk about something else! So our usual walkies gangs are back to normal with the return of Chewie, but we're still missing Walter who is on his Summer holidays. Grooming has been busy busy again, but no new visitors this week, just our usual regulars. Of course last weekend was taken up with our annual Basset Hound Owners Club Fun Day, which is always a great day out and lovely for us to meet up with our fellow Hound Lovers. Here's a picture of me and Daisy doing the Sit Challenge! 
I'm going to be trialling a new way of sharing our walkies videos as I'm running out of storage space on both my phone and laptop of all our weekly photos. So I'm going to try and set up a You Tube channel which for a Technophobe like myself could be a challenge! Watch this space.
I really really really don't want to mention the C word as I know the holidays aren't over yet but..............my diary for December is already filling up with my regulars thinking about Christmas grooms. There, I've said it! If you want a preen pooch for the festive season, best to book it in sooner rather than later as when September arrives, a bit like Tesco getting their mince pies on the shelf, my diary starts to fill up fast! As usual I will slump into Christmas Eve looking like a Dementor who has just been in a fight with Voldermort (for those of you who are not Harry Potter fans you won't understand that!). 
This weekend is a longer one for some of us and the last Bank Holiday until Christmas (there it is again, the C word!). I'll be starting daily visits to see Freddie the Tortoise and Milo the Cat. Let's hope we don't get the usual Bank Holiday Monday British weather!
Enjoy your extra long weekend with your furries, thank you for listening.
Much love
Sally xx
