Tick removal, the twist method

Recently, we found a couple of ticks on Tomokee, probably the result of a hike in Windy Hill Open Space Preserve. The first tick was a little stubborn but did come out after some tenacious pulling. I decided it was time to search da web for other solutions after struggling a lot more and not having good success removing the second tick. The two pointers that were the most useful were this link and this link.

This first link talks about rubbing the tick in a circular fashion, and the second link mentions twisting the tick as one of the suggested methods. I tried rubbing the tick in a circular fashion for a couple of minutes, but didn't have any success. I waited a bit, then just held the tick's body and gave it a half-turn twist, let go, held it again, gave it another twist, and just repeated this for a minute or so. I was amazed when the tick just let go. Apparently, by doing this, the tick eventually gets tired of trying to hang on and gives up. Patience is the key because it can take a couple of minutes or more, but doing it did not bother Tomokee at all.

I wish we could have video-taped it, especially the part when I kept yelling "eeek! -- it's going to jump onto me!" after the tick landed on floor.

Sleeping posture

Tomokee has some strange sleeping postures, but this one takes the cake.

Golden Gate Park

We were walking through San Francisco's Golden Gate Park recently in early spring and came upon this tree with a mass of birds all parked on the branches on one side. I don't think Tomokee noticed.

Christmas must be finally over

It's never too late to get rid of that Christmas tree. We spotted this on a S.F. street corner recently.

Dog as squid

Tomokee has some strange sleeping/lounging postures. Here he is with all his legs poking out front. We're not sure how he does that.

Tomokee and furniture

We don't really know what it is about Tomokee and furniture, but he will often times treat this sofa as a busy box -- he keeps "burying" his beloved tennis ball under the sofa and then digging it back out.

Unfortunately, he also likes to throw his beloved ball inside this black hole recliner -- once something lands in the guts of this thing, it's really, really difficult and annoying to get it out.

Birthday Dog

Tomokee recently celebrated his fifth birthday. Happy Birthday, T-dog!

He's decked out in his new holiday garb.