Two Ticks, Two Tumors

Our border collie Thumper loves to lay on his back and have his belly rubbed.  When he first showed up on our porch 12 years ago, he was covered in thick matted fur.  He would roll over, we would dig through the nastiness, scratch in just the right place on his belly and make his legs kick and flail in the air.  Nothing would make him happier.  During his transition from homeless mountain mutt to bubble bath, sitting on the couch watching Project Runway dog, we began to find ticks embedded in his skin underneath all of his fur.  We washed him and had him shaved so he could start the process of becoming a proper inside dog.  Every time we found a new tick, we got in the habit of getting out the tweezers and holding the dog down as we ripped the tick from his skin.  One day, as he was reveling in his belly rub, I noticed two new ticks embedded in the skin on his stomach.  We got the tweezers and I pulled and pulled and couldn’t get these two ticks to let go and come loose.  We immediately made an appointment at the vet and took him in.  When the vet came into the exam room, we explained the situation, and she rolled him over to check out the ticks.  She took one look at his belly and explained to us - those aren’t ticks, those are his teets.  Oh, yes, we realized then that boys have teets too, and yes, I had been pulling at Thumper’s with tweezers.  Poor dog.

And, it seems we haven’t learned much about male mammals in the last 10 years even   though Cristi has gotten married to one and now has a baby one.  The other day Cristi and I were changing Baby Samuel’s diaper.  “Boys come in here - something is wrong with Samuel” we yelled to the fellas in the other room.  As they ran in we started explaining “he’s got a tumor or something down there”.  Justin, the husband, paused and said, “are there two of them?”  “yes”.  “Those aren’t tumors”.  For those of you who don’t know, we thought we should share what we learned - at about 6 months of age, the boy parts drop.  Don’t panic, they aren’t tumors.