Answers: American Dog Tick, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Extremely Low, Yes, and if I have so much as a tension headache in the next two weeks because YES.
Many thanks to the Etymology Department of Penn State--even though it took me repeating it five times for my mother to understand and believe that I didn't have to worry about Lyme disease. (Which is a boogeyman around here--everyone knows someone who has some kind of chronic symptom thanks to a delayed diagnosis.) Also, much gratitude to whoever invented the tick key, which really does work as advertised, and was the only thing that could get that bugger off--and did so painlessly and easily. Definitely recommended if you live somewhere with ticks.