Since Sunday afternoon, we've found no fewer than 11 ticks on ourselves, the dogs, and in the car. Eleven, and I'm sure there are more hidden somewhere deep in Riley's fur.

We drove deep into the forest Sunday afternoon in search of rocks for our garden. With a slight misting rain dusting the windshield, we cruised through narrow overgrown trails, crawled in low range up steep rocky hills, and took a relaxing walk through a lush green meadow. That was our mistake.

It's been raining pretty much continuously since last Thursday, and with all the snow we had this winter, the forest is thick and green. Full of life, the sound of birds overhead and the massive swarms of insects should have been enough of a hint to beware the meadow.

Sunday was Lacie's first outing in the great outdoors. A bit hesitant at first, she was soon hopping through the tall wet grass and sprinting up and down the rocky 4x4 trail. The two dogs ran circles around us, investigating strange smells and stomping happily through the overgrown field. Somewhere in all the excitement, they ran straight through a tick nest.

A few minutes after our walk, I noticed a huge pile of rocks by the side of the trail so I stopped the truck and got out. Michelle stayed inside with the dogs while the truck idled quietly in the misty rain. I tossed perhaps a dozen large rocks into the back of the truck and moved back up front towards the driver's seat. As I opened the door, Michelle was in a panic, turning Lacie over and over, combing through her fur as she rolled in the seat next to her.

"She's covered in ticks!" Michelle's eyes were peeled back in horror as she picked another crawling tick from Lacie's back. "She must have walked through a nest."

We turned Lacie over and over, picking three ticks from her fur and two more from the seat beneath her in less than a minute. As Michelle finished checking Lacie, I turned my attention to Riley. Having thicker fur and being a bit larger than Lacie, I immediately found no ticks as I combed through his fur with my fingers.

Over the past two days since the first discovery, we've found an addition six ticks on Riley, Michelle and me. I just picked the eleventh tick from Riley's underside not ten minutes ago, and expect we'll be finding a few more before this is all over.

If he had it to do all over again, I'm sure Noah would still leave the fish. After a few days of picking ticks off of things, I'm sure he'd leave the ticks too.