Wildlife

We talked earlier today about moose. Apparently there are moose (mooses? meese?) who live in the archipelago and swim between the islands to forage. A few days ago, a family of three (with a new kid) was seen munching the greenery of our island. I like that thought; it would be great to see a big ol' moose family ambling around on Aspö, the three of them new here, like the three of us.

Speaking of wildlife, there are snails all over our property, fat and white as golf balls. I moved at least two dozen of them out of my way today to keep them from being crushed.

Moving down the phyla, Margaret spoke at great length today about the abundance and menace of ticks in the area. I looked as closely as I could tonight and didn't find any on myself, but my eyesight, as everyone knows, is poor. (And with Sooz away in the US right now, I have a dilemma- who will check me for ticks? Hmmm...) Apparently there's a vaccine here in Sweden and I may look into that. I'm more worried now about Ollie, as we plan to take him with us next year. Although he has thick fur, he is also very low to the ground. However, we've seen a lot of dogs and cats here so it's certainly common. (A thought- what would Ollie do if he saw a moose?)

UPDATE: Marcia has volunteered to check for ticks when I get back to their house tomorrow night. She also has a lot of info on ticks and their diseases.