The Bumblebee Incident

Playing in the surf...

It had been an especially beautiful afternoon. The tide had gone down lower than it had all year, giving us about 40 yards of beach. Big round rocks had popped up all around from the sand being eroded by the strong tides. I had brought down my Ipod, a good book and Pepe’s favorite tennis ball and had found a nice boulder to sit on, enjoy the sun and read. The arrangement was not agreeable to Pepe. He had other plans in mind: Like me not reading and concentrating on throwing his ball. We managed to reach an agreement, I would read and throw him the ball between paragraphs. We stayed on the beach until the sun started lowering itself over the horizon. We’d had a nice time  -reading, making occasional conversation with neighbors, sniffing a butt or two- just having an easy afternoon. As we came into the house, I noticed Pepe was a little wobbly, walking almost as if he were drunk, and he collapsed almost as soon as he got to his favorite pillow. I though his wobble was kind of funny, as I assumed it had been caused by the “intense” exercise -Despite being so little, Pepe can hold his own with most big athletic dogs.

A couple of hours passed and I noticed that Pepe had been a bit calmer than usual. When I checked in on him, I realized the little guy was completely passed out. I started getting worried and tried to get him to eat something but he refused. I thought he might feel better if he slept for a little while.

He looked very peaceful while he slept. I understood why people, when they meet Pepe, sometimes say: “He looks like a stuffed animal,” “Is that a squirrel?” “Does he have some Ewok in him?” Hoping the nap had helped him feel better, I woke Pepe up to see if he had some appetite. As I rubbed his head to rouse him, he bit me! There was something definitely wrong. I called Dr. Victor at the Malibu Animal Hospital hoping he’d be on call at 9 p.m.

The Dr. was quickly on the line listening to Pepe’s symptoms. “It sounds like he was stung by a bee” Dr. Victor said. “Dogs behave exactly the way you’re describing when they get stung. Don’t worry, he’ll be fine. just give him some children’s Benadryl.”

I realized what had happened: Bees sometimes go on the warm sand to die. I’ve stepped on them accidentally and although they’re still dying they still have the ability to sting. It occurred to me that a bee stinging a 3 pound dog would be like a Bumblebee the size of a hawk plunging his stinger into a person. Painful!

I sat next to Pepe. He growled at me. I’d just wait until the Benadryl kicked in.

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