Story: A sticky situation; Tucker encounters burrs

“Hey, look at Tucker!” my son called. “He looks ridiculous He’s got grass all over his head.”

Tucker tends to look ridiculous more times than not, and his wiry fur collects odd objects the way my black dress pants collect white cat hairs, so I didn’t think much of Aaron’s comment.

“Seriously,” said my son. “You really need to come look.”

He was right.

Tucker looked like this:

Burs in a dog's coat

While the green goes very nicely with your brown fur, Tucker, I think I can come up with accessories that are less troublesome.

Someone had gotten himself into a sticky situation.

Tucker the dog has burrs stuck in his fur.

My son was incredulous. “You’re stopping to take pictures?” Well, yes. I’m a blogger. (And Tucker was not in any pain or discomfort. Maybe embarrassed that his “do” was more of a “don’t.”)

He’s done this before, our Tucker. We had an encounter with tick trefoil on a walk; all three dogs came home decorated with small, nasty burrs.

These little seeds that Tucker was modeling were different: round instead of flat, and spaced a little further apart from each other on the stem. While I’m not a botanist, my guess is they are from a type of non-native weed called agrimony.

For Tucker, it was more like aggravation. The tiny burrs were all over his head; in his attempts to paw them off, he managed to mush them deeper into his fur. And get them stuck between his toes.

Tucker the dog smiles even though he has burrs stuck in his fur.

The burrs on his lips and under his nose were the hardest to remove.

There was a line of burrs right under his nose and along his lips. Poor Tucker.

Removing burrs like these is a painstaking process. With my fingernails, I pulled off one prickly seed at a time, holding Tucker’s hair with my other hand, so I wouldn’t be yanking his fur out.

Tucker the dog looks sad because he has so many burrs in his fur

A few minutes into the burr-removal process, Tucker already had enough.

Tucker was not a happy puppy.

Even his collar was decorated with the green cling-on balls of irritation.

Burrs on a dog's collar.

It’s easy to see why burrs are the inspiration for the development of Velcro.

It took about twenty minutes to get all the seeds out of his fur and from in between his toes. And even though I was careful, I did take some fur along the way.

A dog's fur with burrs stuck to it

He lost a few furs, but luckily I didn’t have to cut any off, like last time.

I hope that’s the end of it, but I’ve looked all over my yard and I cannot find the source of these obnoxious seeds.

So the aggravating agrimony is still out there, just waiting for a nosy dog to hitch a ride on. And my bet is on Tucker.

 

What souvenirs do your pets bring home from your yard or walks?

 

You may also like:

 

Today we’re participating in the Monday Mischief blog hop. Check out some of the other mischievous happenings in the blogs below.

MondayMischief



27 Comments on "Story: A sticky situation; Tucker encounters burrs"

Trackback | Comments RSS Feed

  1. slimdoggy says:

    Ugh – those look nasty. We have burrs here too – actually it’s yellow starthistle that grows wild, blooms in the spring and then dries out and leave these thistles all over. Jack and Maggie get at least one a day in their paws at the park. But then we also have Rosemary bushes that Jack that houses lizards, so jack comes in smelling like rosemary all the time.

  2. Brian Frum says:

    Oh yuck! Those look worse that the winter time brrrrrrrrs!

  3. easy rider says:

    oh that are little green gremlins. my mom got it in her fur once, we need hours to remove it. Glad you are burr-free now Tucker.

  4. Yikes, those look really uncomfortable!

  5. Emma says:

    OMD! That is so funny because little Bailie had the same encounter this morning on our walk. She and Mom were fighting as Mom tried to remove them all from her right ear and top of her head. She has had a couple bigger brown burrs on a paw before, but these green ones are sticky and nasty!

  6. Jen Jelly says:

    Ok I’m sorry but I laughed because when I read the title I certainly wasn’t expecting that many. Those are the worst, and Laika has a fit when I remove them. Poor Tucker, I wish I knew where those stupid things come from, too. We don’t have to go very far into the woods and Laika gets em all over and I come out fine.

  7. Sandy says:

    Ouch – poor Tucker (and poor you)

  8. Aww, poor tucker. This post definitely should be linked up to Aww Mondays!

  9. Flea says:

    Oooooo. Burrs are most irritating. I’m glad you could get them out without cutting. Ugh.

  10. Comedy Plus says:

    Poor Tucker. Our Little Bit has gotten into similar situations. They don’t like it one bit either.

    Have a woof woof day. 🙂

  11. Mike Golch says:

    I used to hate that as well when we would take out cookie for walks in the metro parks.

  12. Kitties Blue says:

    Poor Tucker. That looks like quite a bit of fur! Mom says she remembers those awful burrs from growing up in California. She says that she doesn’t remember ever encountering any here in Virginia. The poison ivy is her nemesis. The three of us who have access to the yard and not just the Catio get it on our furs and then on her. XO, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo

  13. I’m always wary of foxtails and Mr. N has come home with burrs several times before. I use a flea comb to get them out.

  14. We live in the bush and often get burrs and the like in our fur. The joys of country living!

  15. Yikes! We hope Tucker stays away from that stuff.

  16. Teddy says:

    between his toes?! that hadda hurt.

  17. Poor Tucker! So glad he’s going to be okay and he was such a good boy letting you take off those burrs. The worst I come home with is the smell of dead animals, hahaha! Love Dolly

  18. Poor Tucker! Sticky burs are the worst!

  19. Jan K says:

    That is no fun…for you or Tucker! We have little black ones with two pointy ends that stick in the fur. You’ve reminded me that I should start looking for those this fall. I never knew where they came from, then finally found the plant last fall. Luckily we’ve been working on a big yard clearing project, so hopefully we won’t see them this year (if I can keep after my hubby to keep up with the clearing).

  20. Dawn says:

    Poor Tucker. 🙁 Good thing he had you to help take care of those nasty buggers. We ran into some at the lake on Labor Day. Maya only had one between her toes but our friend’s poor Doxy was covered in them.

  21. Kathe W. says:

    oh poor puppy! Hope he never finds that plant again!

  22. Jean Walter says:

    I know how it feels painstakingly removing them one by one. We’ve got lots of those irritating burrs around where we live. Once, I had to cut my pup’s hair just to remove them because they got entangled very badly and couldn’t get them off with my bare hands. Poor Tucker! I hope he never finds himself in that “sticky” situation again.

  23. You poor thing Tucker! I cringed as I read the word burr! I hate those things, I try get them off too! 🙂

    I hope you’re having a fun day,

    Your pal Snoopy 🙂

  24. Marisa says:

    What breed is Tucker? Please email me. He looks a lot like my dog

Post a Comment

%d bloggers like this: