If you're lucky, you'll feel an itch and discover it before it's too late. If you're unlucky, you won't find out until you notice a bluish red ring somewhere on your body, the circumference of which keeps expanding. By then, it might be too late.

You've most likely been infected with Lyme disease from a tick.

I have yet to see any of the apparently rare big blue kind, but the ones that do exist in this neck of the woods are vicious little fuckers.

Last year I was attacked thrice, but had the luck of noticing before they could spew too much of their infested spit into my blood. Ilemauzer (the cat) is worse off -- a couple of days ago he had eight of the beasts happily slurping away, but four were large enough to twist off.

For the cat, during summer, a day with less than four ticks is a miracle. He's a tick magnet, none of the other cats in the neighbourhood attract as many -- combined. I think it's because his territory has more forest than the others and that he's prone to stay out for days without coming home.

Hopefully neither the cat nor I will be seriously sick this year (Lyme borreliosis and meningoencephalitis can be dangerous if not diagnosed early.) He always gets a slight fever when being feasted upon, constantly a bit worse for wear, but it passes. He seems to tolerate it as long as he can sleep in someone's lap and be cuddled.