bee

Another Encounter

Hey, what happened to you? I had a run in with a yellow jacket. How does it feel.
It stings!

Ba-dum-dum!

I saw a movie recently where Mila Kunis’ character knew she was royalty because bees never stung her. I must be the opposite of royalty.

Up in heaven, Geordie is saying, “It’s not so funny when it happens to you, is it?!?”

Sleepy Cairn terrier puppy.

This was Toby on the day he got his nose stung.

He didn’t know me well enough to trust me to take the stinger out.

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Dream Our World

What would two puppies do if left on their own in an art museum? Find out in Dream Our World! Inside the boys discover the world of art from a canine perspective and enjoy a day of unsupervised fun.

Dream Our World is available form my shop.

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Encounter With a Bug

Recently the question was asked if we’ve ever had an  encounter with a bug.  Well, here is mine:

Bee Sting Eye

I am aesthetically challenged under the best of circumstances, so the bee who stung my eye did not do me any favors.  (This has happened to me twice, but I guess I only took a picture of one.)

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Cover of the book Dream Our World

Real museums still aren’t open, so if you would like to experience the world of art, come with my boys to the Museum of the Imagination! Inside Dream Our World, Bitey and Toby explore to their hearts’ content while enjoying a day of unsupervised fun.

Dream Our World is available form my shop, L Bowman Studios.

 

 

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The Cassandra Moth

I have a friend who says that puppies' souls come back to visit their mommies as butterflies.

Yesterday I was in the garden when a moth came around and kept batting itself into me.  No matter how much I shooed it, it kept coming back. Afterward, I delivered a zucchini to a neighbor and mentioned the incident to her.  She said a moth did the same thing to her and even got caught in her hair.  Some believe that moths and butterflies are souls coming back to visit us.  While I appreciated the visit, I didn’t understand what “flap, flap flap” meant.

A little while later I was picking berries when I heard an insistent tapping noise. I looked around and saw that it was a moth in a death struggle with a yellow jacket. They fought and fought for the longest time.   Eventually I turned away to keep picking and lost sight of them. When I went to put more berries in my bucket, though, they fell out of an overhead branch and into bucket. I don’t know how, but the bee had dragged the moth up into the bush. They kept fighting until the bee forced the moth to the bottom of the bucket, then it ate the moth. When the bee flew away, all that was left was a pair of wings.

I’d never seen anything like that before. I wondered if that was the moth that kept hitting my neighbor and me. Perhaps she was Cassandra and knew her fate and was asking for help.

Two Cairn terriers sitting in the grass.

Why didn’t you eat the moth? We would have.

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I Did It Again

Honey bee climbing on clover.

It seems that I am a dog who should take my own advice.  What did I say at the end of my last blog?  Something about watching out for the bees?

After being stung on Friday, I finally started to feel better by Monday.  I was cheerful, and my appetite was back.  I was greeting neighbors and being my normal bouncy self.  Then two steps from the front door I did it again;  I stepped on a bee.

This time Mom didn’t hesitate,  and she rushed me to the vet.  They didn’t seem as worried as she was about me.  They checked my paw for stingers.  (That hurt like heck).  The checked me for a fever.  (Despite what the vet said about “bigger things that ‘this’ coming out of ‘there’ all the time” I did not care for it…therefore it hurt like heck.)  Then they gave me the nastiest shot I’ve ever had in my life.  (That hurt like heck.)  My poor paw swelled like an elephant’s foot, and I couldn’t stop panting and pacing.  When we got home, I had to take the worst tasting antibiotic invented by man.  It was definitely not my day.

To make things worse Toby was feeling neglected, so he got all the attention once I was settled in at home.  He got to go out in the yard and play Frisbee with Mom (the bees were asleep by then), and I had to sit in the house with a nasty aftertaste in my mouth while my paw throbbed.

I would warn you to be careful about the bees again, but I can see it won’t help.  After watching the movie Swarm,  it seems that once bees are riled up there is no stopping them.  Just try to make sure that when you’re stung you don’t fall on the train throttle or the self destruct button on the nuclear power plant.  The earth’s survivors will thank you.

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If the Bee Stings

A very sick little dog.

Is this the saddest little face or what?

My poor little boy had a rough weekend.  He started it out by stepping on a bee.  I watched him for symptoms like difficulty breathing, swelling, hives and excessive drooling, but he didn’t have any of these.  What I didn’t realize was the tiredness and soft poos he was having were signs of a reaction bad enough that he should see a vet.  (I was blaming the tiredness on Benedryl.)

Should your pup come out the loser in an encounter with a bee, first remove the stinger.  (The pup will not like this.)  Then put a baking soda paste on the wound.  (The pup will not like this.)  Apply ice to help with the pain.  (The pup will not like this).  Then give a Benedryl.  (The pup will really like this if you wrap it in peanut butter!)

Along with the Benedryl, I gave my boy some of the topical cortisone spray I keep on hand for his hot spots.  It isn’t as strong as what the vet would have given him, but it did seem to bring him a bit of relief.

Be safe around those bees this Summer!

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