Brad Paisley is sending out false advertisement.

In this video, Brad Paisley is making a cute little joke about checking for ticks, which is his way of saying he wants to get in your pants.

I tell you what though, ticks are NO JOKE. I started to despise this music video and Brad Paisley the other night, as I pulled tick after tick off of my poor dog. About this time every year, it is wood tick season. They hide in the grass, bushes and trees, just waiting for something living and breathing to walk by so they can latch on, stick their head inside your skin and suck your blood. If any of the guys go out fencing or do anything on the farm, they usually have at least one of the little buggers on them by the end of the day. I do a "tick check" on hubs every night after he comes in from work or the farm.

After I found the first tick on my dog a could weeks ago, I put some tick and flea stuff on him. I bought it at the grocery store, and applied it just like the directions said. It was $15 for a 3-pack. Usually my MIL would buy the stuff and put it on all of the dogs for us. I've actually never bought it before, so I didn't know how much it should cost. I noticed him scratching a lot the other night, so I started felling around on his head, belly, and under his legs. He was covered with ticks. I took him into the bathroom, laid him on the rug, and pulled tick after tick off of him. They were mostly all small, but there were a couple that had filled with a little blood. When you pull those off, sometimes they burst and blood goes everywhere. It's pretty gross, and if they're too bad I make my FIL take those off. In all, there were about 50 that I pulled off of him. My poor baby! No wonder he was scratching a lot!

I decided that the tick repellent I put on him 2 weeks ago didn't work, so I went to the vet's office yesterday afternoon and picked up some of the good stuff I knew would work. I grabbed the box off of the shelf and the girl behind the counter rang it up.

"That will be $70.76"
"Ummmm, what?!?!?"
"Yeah, it's expensive, I know."
"Well, okay then. I guess I have to get it!"

So now we know that the "good stuff" is WAY more expensive than the not-so-good stuff. I'll put it on my pup tonight, and hopefully this stuff will start working! Here is a pic of what the creepy-crawlies look like, with no blood in them:

And here's a nasty pic of one full of blood:


One other thing that comes with the territory of owning a dog, is that when he comes inside, the ticks come with him. We've found them on the wall, on the floor, on our pillows, in our beds, in my belly button, and on my arm in the middle of the night. Awesome. So as you can imagine, every little itch I feel, I freak out for a brief second, just to realize that it isn't a tick, but just an itch. They usually go for the head, your armpits, or "down there". Yep, no joke.

These little guys will be around most of the summer, but they're particularly worse right now because of the wet spring weather.

Now, good luck not freaking out the next time you have an itch on your arm :)