OK,  To make a long story short, moving away didn't help; and we moved back last fall. From Oregon to Maine. Heres what happened a few days ago.

We brought two cow dogs with us when we moved and they stay outdoors during the day.  My daughter noticed a lump on one of the dogs and I went to investigate and realized it was a "tick". I needed two people to get rid of mr. tick. One to hold down the big dog and one to burn the tick to make it back out of the poor mutt. DH got home around 6 from work and I was sleeping because I work all night. I woke up around 9 to get ready for work and DH and MIL were in my kitchen with the dog. They were discussing between the two of them of what this thing was and how weird it looked and MIL was insisting it was a cancerous lump and if DH was to burn it he would hurt the dog and on and on and on and so I walked over, leaned down and looked and said, "that is a tick". My MIL instantly snapped back at me, "YOU people must have weird ticks out THERE".  I didn't say a word. I just closed my mouth and took my shower and got ready for work. When I got out of the shower they had the "tick" out and both of them were looking at it and oohing and aahing over how big it was and all that crap.

Of all the problems I expected to face coming back here, prejudice really hadn't crossed my mind.