The tic & vaseline

Hi all,
It's time we carried on with our tour of Scotland, here's recap on where we got to last time. We were on our way back to the cottage when my wife discovered that our dog had got a tic. Having discovered the little monster and with thought that the tic could poison our wee pooch, she directed me to make as much speed as possible and reach Newton Stewart before the pet shop shut. It was at the pet shop that she hoped to find something that would remove the tic.

Having gone around several corners almost on two wheels we arrived in Newton Stewart in the middle of the rush hour, and there wasn't a parking space anywhere. There was only one thing for it. I stopped the car outside the pet shop, deposited my wife on the pavement and told her I'd go round the block and pick her up after she'd been in the pet shop.

Anyway, I parked up for five minutes before going round the block. I've played this game a few times before in various places where parking is obviously a sin. If I went around the block straight away, she wouldn't be there when I come back past so I'd have to go around again. This winds me up more than cyclists do when they use the button to stop the traffic while they ride over a pelican crossing.

So having given her plenty of time, I make my way around the block and there she is. I stop briefly, much to the annoyance of people in the cars behind who are all in hurry to get home to watch the weakest link. For some reason I get embarrassed if I obstruct other car drivers, so as soon as she had one foot in the car I dropped the clutch and went of like a rat up a drainpipe.
"Well,did you get anything?" I enquired.
"No," she replies as the g force pins her back into her seat. "You can't buy anything in pet shops to get rid of a tic"
By the time we've had this conversation I'm on the outskirts of Newton Stewart heading back to the cottage.
"So what do we do now?" I asked.
"Well, he did say that a tic can be removed by covering it with Vaseline. Apparently the tic suffocates and then drops off."
Now before I go any further I'd just like to say that exactly the same advice was was given to me by Kevin who kindly offered the same information after my last post.
"I take it we've got some Vaseline?" I asked.
"No," she says. "We'll have to get some from the chemist."
"Where's the chemist?"
"Newton Stewart."
"Well why didn't you say? I'll have to go back now and drop you off again and go around the block."
"It's your own fault for diving like a demon," she says, "I don't know what gets into you when you get behind the wheel."
Anyway I dropped her off at the chemists in the high street and went round the block again.

When we got back to the cottage we applied a generous dollop of Vaseline to the tic and waited for it to drop off. Well I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but it didn't.
"Let's have another go,"I said after my wife mentioned that the only other thing we could do was take him to the vet.
The dog hates the vet and I hate the vet's bill, so I quickly applied some more Vaseline. One way or another I was going to suffocate this annoying little tic because it was beginning to spoil my peaceful holiday.

The second helping didn't work either in fact the tic seemed quite comfortable in his new tent. He looked at me at one stage with his hands behind his head saying, "It's lovely and cosy in here, thank you very much."

We thought perhaps there might be pockets of air trapped in the dog's fur around the tic, so we wiped the Vaseline off carefully and then removed as much fur as possible from the area around the tic. Having done that we applied the rest of the jar's contents in a shit or bust attempt to deprive the blighter of air.

Sorry Kevin, and the man in the pet shop, but it didn't work for us. Perhaps it's one of those urban myths like you are never further then six inches from a rat. There again, perhaps we just weren't doing it properly.

Anyway, the following day we took the dog and his new blood sucking friend to the vets. The vet grabbed the tic gently with a pair of tweezers and twisted them slowly. A split second later the tic withdrew its claws and was removed. I paid the bill and everybody was happy. The interesting thing is that my wife witnessed the operation and it was so simple that she used her knowledge to remove two more tics on subsequent holidays in Scotland.So if you want to remove a tic, and suffocation by Vaseline doesn't work, try the tweezers method.
I still don't understand why a tic would rather leaves its claws behind than let go, if it is pulled. Yet if it is twisted, it can't let go fast enough. It just goes to prove there's nowt so thick as a bloody tic.
Sorry we haven't visited any attractions in this post, but we'll get back on the road with my next one. I've added a few photos taken near Wigtown which should be some compensation. And here's' a reminder that you can visit our website and see some of our painting and get a free sample download of my book etc by
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