Saga of the Stickers

I love country living. Nothing better than hanging on the back porch and watching the sun go down while throwing the ball for Piper and sipping on ice water. But it has one major drawback:

Stickers.

Otherwise known as sand burrs.

When we first bought this place, we noticed that stickers were all everywhere. Now in case you don’t live in sticker-country, they are brutal. Little thorns that cluster on a green blade that shoots up out of the ground, they create pain and agony to bare feet and critters’ paws. If they aren’t dealt with, they grow exponentially and can take over a yard in a matter of minutes.

Okay — that may not be true. But it absolutely feels that way. 

And so, Roy and I have been on a mission to destroy the stickers. We sprayed a pre-emergent in the spring and then we happened upon a poison called MSMA that we just sprayed this week. I noticed today that the sticker plants are actually dying.

Ah - progress.

Stickers’ favorite time of the year to come out and party is July and so we are hitting the time when they are in full bloom. As a result, I am leery of letting Piper run the back acre. Now let me say, there is nothing Piper adores more than running the back acre. He likes to galavant from tree to tree, chase a squirrel or two, bark at the air, and just have a grand time back there.

But when he returns to the fenced in area? Oh my…he is just a mess. And now we get to add stickers to the chaos. Piper’s coat is curly and long and apparently they love hanging out in all of that hair, as every time he goes out, he comes back with a sticker patch enmeshed in his paws.

This evening, Roy asked Jace and me to spread some poison on the ant hills which are a continual problem on our property. And so, I headed out to the back acre in search of little red hills and scurrying ants.

Poor things.

But I will say…I have noticed that they simply pack up and move when they encounter the poison. It’s like a game…where are they now?…as the number of ant hills has certainly not declined and we have been at this for quite some time.

Anyway, as I was heading out of the gate there in the back yard, Piper squeezed through in a mad dash before I had the opportunity to pull him back. “Oh well,” I shrugged to myself, watching him happily trot off to the back acre. As I had ants on my mind, I wasn’t too concerned.

Jace and I zig zagged around, spreading poison here and there, while Sadie bounced along behind us. She’s kind of like having a dog as she is never far away from wherever the action is. Anyway, suddenly it dawned on me that Piper was still missing, and so Jace called him and, strangely enough, Piper came running.

Normally, he takes his good sweet time about it. (And I find that rather annoying.)

Once Piper got closer to us, he flopped down on the grass and began to nibble on his paws.

Stickers.

And then he began to do this really weird thing with his mouth — this incessant licking and flopping his head around and licking in a way that appeared as though he had something on the roof of his mouth.

“What’s going on, Piper?” I asked him, as though I expected an answer, and then I propped open his mouth and looked inside. 

Sure enough. A sticker was lodged in his gums in between his front teeth.

Great.

And so Jace and I headed inside with Piper, still licking frantically and flopping his head around, where we wrestled Piper to the ground and one of us attempted to hold him still while the other attempted to pluck out the sticker with tweezers. After wrangling and wrestling and prodding and pulling for a solid 15 minutes, we made zero progress.

The sticker was stuck.

Jace finally got up to grab a drink of water when, hit with a moment of inspiration and determination, I grabbed Piper, firmly held his jaw with one hand, and reached in with the other, grabbing the sticker with the tweezers and pulling it straight down.

And to my utter shock, there it was, neatly cradled in the middle of the tweezers.

Figuring all of this maneuvering meant I wanted to play, Piper headed off to find his ball while I set the tweezers aside to sterilize.

Later I recounted this story to Roy who said,” Next time don’t let Piper out of the gate.”

Oh really? Hm. I hadn’t thought of that. What a genius idea.

Thanks, Roy.