I had a good night last night. I cooked calamari and baked vegetables. Had a glass of chardonnay with dinner.
Spent the rest of the night on various phone calls and IMs and PMs chatting with friends and then just as I'm about to finally head off to bed, someone escapes out the back door.
Mutter grumble !!! She wont come back in? Fine spend the night out.
Woken this morning at 5:30am-ish by the sounds of a catfight. Roll out of bed, don't bother putting glasses or light on, let the cat in. That's what happens when you spend the night outside. I give her a cuddle then put her down and head to the bathroom on the way back to bed.
There are black things all over my arms - great she's been rolling in the mud. These things are not coming off - they are moving - HOLY CRAP !!!!
Sprint to the bedroom for the glasses - sprint back to the kitchen - HURRY UP YOU STUPID FLUROESCENT LIGHT !!!!! Who the hell puts a fluorescent light in a kitchen when I'm going to be going in there in complete darkness with with black THINGS all over my arms !!!!
My arms are covered in leeches. My cat is covered in leeches.
A few minutes, an entire container of salt and a cat brush later my brains stops gibbering and we are both free of the horrible black squirmy things .....
Except Trubs has lots of flea dirt too - oh well while we are at it I may as well give her her drops of Frontline or Revolution of whatever the stuff is .....
Twenty minutes later I'm on the net with a cup of tea and a purring cat in my arms - typing one-handed ...... smelling vaguely of Frontline where she'd smeared it all over me ..... with no possibility of getting anymore sleep ....
37 comments:
OMFG...Leeches...OMG, OMG, OMG...I think I would have been too traumatized to even remember the salt. Thank goodness you had some..OMG!
[Shudders at the thought of nasty evil sucky black things]
A friend has to deal with them occasionally when she walks her dogs along a creek near her place. That's the only reason I knew about the salt.
But I gotta confess I was trying to pull the first few off by hand and they were just attaching themselves to my fingers before a part of my brain screamed SALT over the top of all of the gibbering voices .....
Dunno why but toothpaste came to mind here....Salt makes 'em shrivel...There's no way I could have coped, too much like slugs...ugh!
You did good. Thank goodness A had mentioned how she gets rid of them although I'm sure Denise would have known at a pinch!
Yeah like I would have rung my my at 5:30am gibbering down the line ..... leeches !!!!!!! Omh MY God Leeches !!!!!!!
Yup - that would have done wonders to improve my mother's ideas on my mental stability ....
Yes, s'pose it is a little early LOL...Other option would have been emergency services of some kind in a flapping panic.
Again in Australia - I think they would have laughed themselves hysterical ..... {grin}
yeah, they would here I imagine...but, panicking female, just hose her down LOL
Count me in on the flapping panic group. {shudder} I hope if I'm ever faced with this that Mel's voice kicks in and screams SALT loudly!
EEEEEWWWWW!!!!!! Every time I hear/read the "L" word, I think of that scene in Stand By Me, where they wade across that water, and the kid has one in a delicate spot. And passes out when it comes off. And it was worse, actually, when I read the story before they made the movie. Yuck - just gave myself the willies..... Surely it wasn't an attention-getting ploy by Ms. Trubby, was it?????
Yup - even my gold fish brain remembers things occasionally :) :)
I hope not - that was my first and hopefully last dealing with leeches !!!! There's a reason I live in a pole home and view the outside world from the balcony !!!!
That's funny Karen......that was my first thought too!! lol
Sorry that you had to deal with those yucky things Mel!! Salt never would have entered my mind.......you did good!!!!
Oh, My Gosh Mel - you did great!!! I wouldn't have even known about using salt, and I'd be in too much of a frenzy to think straight!! What a nightmare!
Look what the cat dragged in indeed, LOL! Forgive me, but this really cracked me up! How much blood did the leeches get out of you?
Are yours poisonous in any way? Leeches are a nuisance, but normally once they've filled their bellies they just fall off (unlike tics!!!) and are also not known to leave behind deseases. In many places they are actually used to suck blood to lower blood pressures and for other medical reasons.
They didn't. I discussed it with my friend and she suggested that during the fight Trubs must have rolled into a patch of youngsters or something. They were matted in her fur but didn't seem to have actually dug in and started feeding.
Similar with me, they were attached but hadn't yet started feeding. I do have two lumps on one arm so I suspect they were the more advanced ones that had actually injected their toxins in .....
*shudder* not good, not good at all! At least it is all over and done with (and hopefully Trubs will be happy to remain an indoor cat from now on!!)
Har de Ha ha !!!!
She was back outside within the hour and spent most of the day out there !!! Mind you its now after 9pm at night and she is curled up asleep so I might go lock the door while she's not looking ......
BTW nice to hear from you Hilary - you haven't been around much lately .....
LOL. You have a way with a story Mel. I even head to read this one to DH who wandered in from the other room to see what I was laughing at.
Living on the lake, leeches are a daily occurence. Step 1, play in water. Step 2, get out of water. Step 3, check for leeches. 99% of the time they are tiny, tan colored juveniles. They don't have large enough mouth parts to penetrate the skin. But once every other year or so, one of the kids will get a huge black one. Yuck.
Coming from you dear that *is* a compliment !!! I adore the stories you tell and cannot hope to match you for wittiness :) :)
Yuck. Me I would have probably died right there on the spot. Quick thinking Batman to get the salt. Mind you I would love to have been a fly on the wall watching....chuckles...chuckles........
Now I know why I live in the UK 600 feet above sealevel with the nearest water miles away
Oh YUCK!!! I am happy to hear that you were able to take care of all of that though ;)
Anyone else had Lyme Disease??
Nope, but I just checked and they say that about 3000 people every year are infected in Switzerland only. The bacteria are carried by about 30% of all tics! And the others probably carry the bacteria that cause meningitis :-( Tics don't leave a person or animal for a long time while they are there. They have a habit of dropping down from bushes, high grass and even small trees, which is why they can be found all over your body. Awful little things.
Kay, you may be safe from leeches, but definitely NOT from tics. And these nasty bugs are much more scary for me!
Leeches are relatively harmless. They have a toxin that thins blood, so they can suck and digest it. I know that they are even used to do precisely that for patients who are endangered of getting thromboses. The blood thinner is natural and causes less problems than many medications. The amount of blood the animals actually take is so minimal that the gain is much higher.
Mel, you have again chosen a VERY lovely theme here!
Thanks sweetie - and thanks for all of the medical information too - now I'll have nightmares about tics as well as leeches !!!
Being bitten by a Tic isn't always obvious. We can pinpoint exactly when and where I got mine but at the time, I had no clue other than being comatose for a day when we should have been playing in Barbados. Took them almost four years to diagnose Lyme's as it wasn't very well known then.
Claire - I know of one other person who has Lyme disease. The younger brother of a friend. She said it changed his behavior and personality so much, it was like he wasn't the same person.
Also had another friends son get a life threatening bacterial infection from a spider bite.
Not heard of any problems from leeches though, LOL. Mel, I think your safe!
Yup - I'm safe. Just as long as Trubs doesn't bring in any spiders, bugs, snakes .....
I think Terry Pratchett said it the best: Everything in Australia is poisonous and dangerous - except for some of the sheep.
The sheep are just there for fun....
Lyme is nasty. It does change you a lot...I'll blog and explain why without entirely hijacking Mel's blog.
http://clearstar.multiply.com/journal/item/142/Lyme_Disease
OY, EWWWW, BLECH, BLARG!!!! You poor dear. I mean I know leeches can be good things, but EWWWWW, ICK, I would have had nightmares for weeks. I think I'll have one tonight. Naps are completely out of the question! *huggles* Glad you two are on your way to leech-free recovery.
Remember he only says *some* of the sheep !!!
And that link isn't working for me honey :)
weird...clicked the link and it goes through...could just be you my love as everyone else seemd to get over there...pouts.
No body loves, every body hates, think I'lll go and eat wooooorrrrrms!
Yikes, there goes my phobia again....hate those wriggling things...you should be in now...
Yup - in now but ran out of time to read - will read and comment at lunchtime.
All I can say is ewwwwwww!
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