So, on Saturday I brought sweet pea to the woods. I have to park on a side street there days because the woods isn't located in my town and I don't have a parking pass for that town. I know the woman who used to live at the cul de sac where I've been parking and she has two dogs. She moved out last spring because she had divorced her husband and now the dogs are sometimes wandering the cul de sac when I pull in. On Saturday the German Shepherd, let's call him Hannes, (because I know a German guy named named Hannes) greeted me as I got out of the car and joined me and sweet pea on our hike. Hannes does that sometimes and I really don't mind at all because I love this dog. I have a thing for shepherds and their strong silent demeanor.
Fast forward a couple of hours in and I'm happily strolling with sweet pea and Hannes when we hear heart wrenching sounds of dogs in distress moving through the brushy are to our left. The panic screams of more than one dog is coming towards and my mind imagined two dogs being chased by a rabid coyote or blood thirsty bear. The two dogs came crashing out of the brush stood and considered us for a moment before continuing to run in the same direction. Sweet pea and Hannes took off after them.
I stood frozen alone on the path wondering if I should get into a defense position and grab my bear mace or hunting knife. But I didn't hear anything else thrashing around in the brush. It didn't appear that those dogs were being chased after all. How strange it was.
When the dogs didn't immediately return I began to call for them. First Hannes came back, doing some kind of strange high step with his front paws. He high stepped right into a puddle, splashed around for a second jumped out of the puddle and then dropped to the ground and began to roll. The sweet pea emerged from the brush covered in bees!! There were about 6 bees caught in the thick fur around her neck and shoulder area. I picked up a stick to try to scrape them out of her but she was too frantic util here were only 2 left and she let me scrape those two away. Luckily the bees didn't then turn on me.
But, after that ordeal, I decided it was time to head back to the car, we had been walking over 2 hours anyways. Before I made it to the car I saw that one side of sweet pea's face had started to swell. It was swelling right around the eye area and turning her into a one sided pitt bull looking dog. I told Hannes' owner he had been stung too, brought Hannes home, and zipped off to my own house where I knew there was a box of benadryl sitting on the kitchen counter. I always have a box around in case I have an allergic reaction to something. I ran into the house, grabbed the box only to discover it was expired by 2 years! I grabbed a chunk of cream cheese, got in the car with sweet pea and headed for the pharmacy. She spent the rest of the afternoon in a tragic position with her eyes half open and half falling off the big chair she normally curls up on.
Then, I took her back to the woods on Sunday, thinking I'd stay clear of that particular area of the woods and she ended up getting bitten again! Both times she ran to me for help and sat down on my toes. It was so tragic, since I could only scrape the little demons off her and not undo their venom. This time she got it on the top of her head and on her rear haunch. I brought her home, dosed her up again and today we walked in a nice open space. It was rainy anyway, but still... I didn't want to go three for three.
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