Tuesday, Aug. 05, 2003 - 9:22 p.m.
As promised.....
Yellow, Buzzin' n' Hornets
There we were, Yellow and I, walking along the forest trail as we have done everyday for the past week. I was lagging behind, as usual, while Yellow ran ahead of me, pouncing in and out of the trees hot on the trail of a critter. On this particular walk she came out of the trees frantically rubbing her snout with her paws, salivating like a faucet left running. She flung herself to the ground and slid her body along the rocky path. I have seen this sort of behaviour from her before and it is usually followed by a particularily potent stench of skunk. I approached her cautiosly but smelled no obvious odours.
I began to walk into the woods from where she came out when I heard the familiar sounds that plague my summer existence. The low buzzing of potentially painful hornets. I am frightfully scared of bees of any type and instantly recoiled at the sight of several of them angrily buzzing around their in-ground hive. I immidiately went into my anti-sting routine (running away squealing like a girly-girl) when I realized Yellow had dropped her ball four feet to the right of the hive. Yellow, being the dog that she is, never leaves her ball behind. Slowly, head down, she crept toward her ball from the far right, but the hornets were on to her. They attacked for the second time, this time clinging to her face and head. Once again she flung herself to the ground in an attempt to save her flesh from their angry stingers, but she could not shake them loose. Several welts later, we continued our walk....without the ball. It was a tough choice for her. She turned back several times. I admired her determination, but had to stop her for the growing lumps on her muzzle.We headed out for our walk the very next day. When we got to the spot where Yellow had dropped her ball, she again snuck in from the right. This time the hornets were unaware of her stealthy plan and she successfully recovered the ball. The victory trot said it all.
