This is a two-part story about the boys and our recent adventures with…nature. The first story is about Melvin, because home-boy needs some blog time!

Late last week we went on a morning walk, as we do every single day of the millennium.  And just as we do every day, we headed into the backyard because Jake can only do certain bodily functions within the privacy of a fence.  As Jake was going #2 behind a tree, Melvin was patrolling the patio for leaves to eat.  All of  a sudden, we were thrust into a horror flick…

A swarm (at this point I didn’t know what it was a swarm of) suddenly engulfed Melvin.  It came from nowhere and there were hundreds of these flying bugs all around him. He was so confused and unable to figure out that he needed to run so I did what any mamma bear would do, I dove into the swarm to pull him out.  I was wearing pants and a fleece zipped all the way up.  As I leaned in to grab his collar, I suddenly felt stinging and pain all over my face.  At that moment I realized that Melvin was not just caught up in the action of being swarmed, he was being stung, repeatedly.

I grabbed his collar and took off towards the house. By this time, my screams had alerted Jake and he was literally flying through the air towards us (how cute is he to try to come save us).  I grabbed Jake midair, partially by his collar and partially by the skin on his back and I somehow managed to get them both through the mudroom doorway.  Something in me thought to close the mudroom door to the house so that the swarm, if following us, couldn’t get past the mudroom.

Luckily the swarm about faced about ten feet from where it attacked.  Melvin was stung countless times, the welts were already forming.  I got the dogs inside, grabbed my cellphone and called our vet.  Melvin is allergic to everything, I needed to know what to do!  They instructed me to give him his normal antihistamine, his daily prednisone and then to start Benadryl, on the hour all day.  I was to watch for facial swelling around the eyes.  My poor baby was stung all over his trunk, even in his ears.  The Benadryl did the trick though, although he was itchy, it did help.  After I called the vet, I called pest control. Once all calls were made, I realized that my face felt on fire.  One look in the mirror made me vow to not use the mirror again that day.  I was stung on my cheeks, nose and chin.  Still, I was way better off than Melvin-man.

It turns out we had two culprits that morning, we don’t do nothing half-ass..  Deer flies and two yellow-jacket nests were found.  The pest control guy felt pretty certain that my facial stings were from yellow-jackets.  The backyard was off-limits all weekend which meant Jake had to #2 in public. Tough love baby, tough love.

I am thankful for the following, in no particular order: modern medicine, the telephone, the vet’s early morning hours, Benadryl, momma bear mentality, Jake’s extra back skin, pest control, an understanding workplace booze, the world-wide-web, Melvin’s ability to be happy in even the most painful of moments and oh right, more booze.

Here is Melvin’s take and photos of him konked out on Benadryl (and on me):

“Ouch, what the…”