The Black Dot

I was coming out of shower feeling all refreshed after a hard muggy day of picking mushrooms, 391 mushrooms to be exact, under the blazing sun. Having had an unusually cool May in New York, today was the first day this year the AC kept chugging on to keep the house in respectably comfortable temperature. Naturally, it felt good coming out of the shower. I felt great. It seemed I could go on another round of mushroom picking. I ALMOST understood the satisfaction people talk about getting, after putting in a good day’s worth of hard labor. Almost.

I reached for the towel when something in my reflection on the mirror caught my eye. I did a double take and there it was. A black dot on my right thigh, right near the bikini line; about a quarter inch away from it. I looked down to search for the dot. I had to search because the rolls of fat blocked a straight clear view of that spot; considering the location, I’m surprised I found it so easily. When I finally got a look at it, I touched it, and as with every blemish, bug bites, pimples, scabs, peeling skin, etc, I proceeded to pick on it. To my surprise, the dot came right off leaving some reddish pigment on my skin. It came right off in the form of a bloodsucking tick!

I started studying this poor disgusting creature on my index finger. I say “poor” creature because it undeniably picked a wrong spot to hold its bloodfest. Its body was as flat as it could be, obviously from being squashed mercilessly when I was sitting down, and I could see only a trace of blood on it. It was trying to move though. It had probably passed out from all the weight squashing it while I was sitting down, and probably thought it reached the end of the rope when I was taking shower, but then by some miracle, it could breathe with ease again and thanked the lord and counted its blessings. I flushed it down the toilet.

After putting clothes on, I went downstairs and did any normal rational human being who just found a tick on her body would do. I frantically looked for ticks on my dogs’ bodies and applied Frontline Plus on them. Then I finally relaxed, sat down and went, phew… now THAT’s all taken care of!

Ironic, I think to myself right now. Because that IS all I can do about it. How come there are tick preventatives for pets, but not for humans? Where is that Frontline Double Plus for humans that we apply in between our shoulder blades?