It rained during last night and it was quite nice to step outside when I let the dogs out. We didn’t get especially much though but any drop helps.

We didn’t have any morning walk today because I wanted to go to the pet store and buy that spray that ticks don’t like. I guess there would be loads of them since they like when it’s a bit wet in the grass. I doubt that I would have managed to make the dogs go outside anyway 🙂 I went to the pet store and bought another spray with much the same content and I also bought a sort of collar for Albin. It really smells of lemon and that is a small ticks are said not to like. After that I went to the super market and the last thing i bought was a soft ice cream with tiny marshmallow topping 🙂

The rest of the day has been rather nice, sunny and just enough warm. We only took a short walk since I wanted to see how the spray would work. Last walk I picked lots of ticks from mostly Alma but also Nova directly after the walk and I continued to pick even more until early this morning. It was different when I had sprayed them, so far I’ve picked five in total, three from Alma and one each from Nova and Albin. I’ll continue to check them all evening and I do hope these are all there were.

Nova was, as always, walking a bit ahead of us when we were out walking and just before we left the forest I noticed something on the ground. It was an adder. Nova must have walked straight over it but I managed to keep both Alma and Albin away from it. To be honest they never noticed it at all 🙂 🙂 The Adder is the only venomous snake we have and as long as dogs (or cats) aren’t bitten in the foot or leg they usually just swell up badly but nothing worse. It’s a good idea to go to the vet anyway because the bite can give infections.

I’ve had two dogs who were bitten by adders and both swelled up badly but nothing worse. They did react with panic every time they saw anything that remotely looked like snake after the bite though. I’ve lived here for 22 years now ans so far I’ve only seen two live snakes (I never saw the one that bit old Erna) and one that was run over by a car. We must have loads of snakes here but mostly they stay in the fields where all rodents live, so I was surprised to see this one in the forest where it is much cooler, especially after the rain. It was still lying completely still when we left it.

It is time for a last cup of tea and after that I need to check the cabbage leafs for butterfly eggs or caterpillars.

Have a great day!