I have been in a bit of a pickle over the past few days. As I have mentioned before, our neighbours´ dogs spend a lot of time with us and as you can imagine, we have become rather fond of them (and so have our visitors). Several days ago, Wolfy (as he is now called; we still haven´t managed to find out his real name) appeared in the morning, limping badly. We had a look at his front paw and he seemed to have hurt one of his claws. His owners, a Spanish couple, are out at work all day, so when I heard their car in the evening I was hoping they´d take one look at the dog and whisk him off to the vet´s. My hope was in vain. The next day, his condition had not improved and I started to wonder if we should go over and talk to the pair. Not the greatest introduction to the neighbourhood, I suppose: “Hello, we are your new neighbours. Now, I suppose you´ve noticed your dog has a poorly paw. What are you going to do about it?” It´s tricky, isn´t it? On the one hand I care deeply for animals but on the other I have to respect the fact that Spaniards don´t mollycoddle their pets as much as we do in England and I´d hate to be known as a meddler and a do gooder. Luckily, Wolfy – although still hobbling – seems to be able to put a little bit more pressure on his paw by now and – truth to be told – he doesn´t seem to be in too much discomfort, let alone pain. So, I´ve let that one go for now (unless things deteriorate, of course).
My other quandary is still animal-related and also concerns Wolfy. The problem is that he is riddled with ticks. I once removed a tick from my cat´s head and on one occasion even one from my own body, so I´m not a complete novice when it comes to dealing with these nasty parasites. Recently, I have also carried out a fair bit of research on the internet and found lots of contradicting information. Use tweezers. Whatever you do, don´t use tweezers as you can´t control how much pressure you apply to the body of the tick. Twist the body of the tick anti-clockwise when you pull it out of the skin. Under no circumstances twist the body of the tick or you´ll risk the head detaching itself and remaining imbedded in the animal´s skin. The internet is a wonderful thing but information overload springs to mind. Basically, to remove a tick safely you have to ensure the head does not become separated from its body and you also have to be careful not to squeeze the body too hard which could cause the blood which the nasty critter has sucked out of the hapless animal to flow back into its bloodstream; this of course can cause blood poisoning and have fatal consequences. The question is: do you really want to burden yourself with that risk, especially if you are not dealing with your own pet? The answer must be no - but on the other hand, these ticks don´t remove themselves and our Spanish neighbours are busy people and tick removal is probably the last thing on their tired minds when they come home at night, exhausted from a day´s work.
Up until now I have consequently buried my head in the sand and repeatedly told myself that they are not my dogs and therefore not my problem. Up until a few days ago that is. On Wednesday afternoon I grabbed the surgical gloves I bought some time ago, the antiseptic wipes and a container filled with gin (at last I´ve found a use for the cheap gin that nobody likes which we bought from Lidl the other day) and set to work on Wolfy. At one point the dog went all floppy and collapsed into my arms and I thought for one horrible moment: ´There, that´s what you get when you interfere with other people´s dogs. Now you´ll have an even better opening remark with which to introduce yourself to the neighbours. “Hello, lovely to meet you. By the way, it seems that I have just killed your dog.” Imagine my relief when Wolfy subsequently rolled on his back, stretching his limbs up in the air, snorting and grunting with sheer delight.
I am happy to report that I have so far successfully removed six ticks, each fatter than the previous one. They won´t be bothering any other animals as I have drowned them in gin. (What a way to go.) There are more to be had but - as they say in Spain - mañana es otro día (tomorrow is another day). That accomplished, I rewarded my efforts with a little gin and tonic. I didn´t touch the tick killer though. Luckily, there was a nice bottle of Tanqueray gin in the fridge.
Cheers!