Find the good in everything

I can't tell you how traumatized I am by the tick I found on my Pumpkin-girl the other day.

But, one of the things I'm trying to do lately is find the good in things -- stressful or sad situations, difficult or annoying people, or blood-sucking, disease carrying, disgusting arachnid-type creatures -- I'm working hard at trying to find the good because I think it will lead to a happier and more peaceful life for me.

But, it just ain't workin' as it relates to ticks.

A few quick spins around the Internet produced only these "good" things to say about ticks:  

• "As parasites, ticks spend their lives feeding on the blood of other animals and consequently can be detrimental to the fitness of individual organisms and can help keep populations of some animals in check. "  You can read more here: 
• "They're good at causing damage," he said. "And causing injuries. They have a role in limiting the host population on which they feed."  Read more here.

I've learned that a good thrashing in the washing machine won't kill the rat-bastards (I'm borrowing that expression from our friend Art who uses it to describe the gophers who challenge him regularly) but that some time spent in a VERY hot dryer, might.

I've also learned that of the 800 or-so varieties of ticks, only (ONLY?) 100 carry disease.   And what lovely diseases they are, too: 

• Lyme disease
• Human granulocytic and monocytic ehrlichiosis
• Babesiosis
• Relapsing fever
• Rocky Mountain spotted fever
• Colorado tick fever
• Tularemia
• Q fever
• Tick paralysis (I wonder why there was no link to Tick Paralysis?  Was it too horrible to describe?)

Frankly, the effort to find something good in the fact that my sweet Pumpkin girl was attacked by a hideous, blood sucking, parasite resulted in very little. 

Just about the only positive I came away with was learning a new way to kill them:   “You can rip them in half, put them in a jar of gasoline.”

 The Country Western singer, Brad Paisley is better at the "finding good in things" thing than I am.  He came up with this song: