Project 52 Date Nights: Chiggers

Since Daniel and I don't have kiddos, we date pretty consistently. This weekend we managed to take a hike, see a double feature at the drive in, window shop at the mall, go to the bookstore, eat out, share a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks and go for another hike. All in the name of spending time together. And we like it.

Since embracing the living-in-a-camper lifestyle we have had issues with various bugs. I am not sure if we would be dealing with this stuff because we live in a campground or if we are just more blessed with critters because we live in Tennessee.

The first week or two {in the camper} Sophie was experiencing a full-on attack by tics. I found those suckers on her everyday. And then to top things off she managed to get into seed tics {the worst by far because there were so many of those things}.

Next up was me experiencing flea bites {not fun}. I think that I can thank the stray cats of the campground for this little present. 

Then last night Daniel discovered that he had chiggers on him. He has bites all over his stomach and legs. We are fairly certain he picked up these little guys on our Sunday afternoon hike. The interesting thing is he was wearing hiking boots with wool socks and pants with a belt and a t-shirt. His goal had been to avoid poison ivy. I, on the other hand, had on chaco sandals, shorts and a t-shirt and I came back unscathed. I feel pretty bad for Daniel, I used tweezers to pull off any remaining bugs last night and he was pretty miserable. He woke up at 4AM this morning and took a Benadryl {no biking today} and used some hydrocortizone cream to combat the itchiness. 

We are looking forward to the cooler temps and less bugs to irritate us.

I Want To Check You For Tics

Daniel and I have regularly been taking Sophie to the Greenway and various dog parks to help her get socialized to people, bikers and other dogs. This can be a challenge at times since she is already two years old, but we are slowly getting her accustomed to new things.

When we walk her on the Greenway, it is very comical. She chooses to run in the 2-4 foot high grasses that grow on the side of the trail. All you can see is the leash and the moving grasses and occasionally a glimpse of her as she bounds through the tall grass.

This morning I took her out to Colonel Francis Beatty Park for a 3+mile walk on one of the trails. She did really well. We are still working on cultivating her trail manners, so every time a mountain biker came towards us on the trail, I would have her step off to the side of the trail and sit and stay while the bikers passed. This was a good teaching experience. She only barked/growled a couple of times. She also did really well walking on the leash. In some places I was able to let it out to the full 16 feet, but other times I kept it a manageable 3-6 feet so that I was able to control the situation and get her to obey me.

We saw a few other dogs - mostly labs swimming in the lake. Sophie is content to get her paws wet when she is hot, but she is not one to get fully into the water.

Sophie's strongest sense is her smell. She doesn't always see or hear animals, but if she gets a scent, she gets pretty wild. I experienced this today when she smelled a squirrel. She started baying and running in circles. Nothing I could do would calm her down. I had to let her chase the scent for a little while before she would calm down.

Over the past month we have found a couple of tics on her during her post-walk grooming. She especially needs grooming after running in the grass at the Greenway. She truly loves this type of running and we enjoy watching her.

So far our mid-morning walk had its desired effect - it wore her out and she is sleeping contentedly on the floor (verses whining or being mopey about Daniel being away).