Until I came to the United States, I had never seen ticks. I'm sure there are ticks in Japan, too, but since I lived in a city, I just didn't have an opportunity to encounter them.

Nature in America is beautiful. I love going camping with my husband and we enjoy trail hiking with our dog. This gives me a lot more opportunities to be exposed to ticks, "fortunately."

My first encounter with a tick happened on the bed the morning after we came back from a state park. I took it for granted that it was just a tiny spider crawling on the bed. After my husband flushed it down the toilet, he told me it was a tick and that ticks are potentially dangerous. I had no idea before, but I learned.

For a while, the mere sight of a tick attached on my dog's body used to freak me out. I remember even calling my husband at work and asked him to come back home real quick to just remove a tick from the dog's body.

But either I got desensitized or practice made perfect. Now, even if I find ticks, I stay calm and remove them without any fuss. I guess I accept tick removal as part of the commitment to owning pets.