September 7, 2020

One of the most amazing parts of Eureka is the beautiful trails and dirt roads to explore. We've been getting to know these routes on dog runs and puppy hikes, slowly expanding our mental map of the ridges, valleys, and creeks that surround us. Recently, we decided to check out a new trail on the hillside behind the homestead. This was also our first time taking all eleven puppies out at once, along with two adult dog chaperones.

It was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky. The puppies were energetic, but sticking close by, especially once we turned off the road and started bushwacking. Our chaperones, Merc and Sound, encouraged the puppies to explore, but also helped wrangle them by frequently circling back to us.

The ground in the woods is springy tundra. It's great fun for the puppies, who tumble around and land softly onto mossy cushions, but makes for slow hiking and easy burrowing for bees. On this day, we found two subterranean bee nests!

We first realized something was wrong when one of the younger pups started whimpering and twisting around violently. Subsequently, more pups were yelping and we spotted bees stuck in their downy fur. Only then did we see the airborne bees. We quickly moved deeper into the woods, out of range of the nest. Colton was stung several times, including near a joint on his hand. While Maddox escaped this first nest unscathed, she would not be so lucky a few minutes later.

Out of range of the nest, we commenced pulling bees off puppies. We removed and neutralized bees using all tools at our disposal, including knives, pliers, and rocks. Once the puppies had been de-beed, we initiated a puppy headcount and luckily coralled all eleven. One of our chaperones, however, was missing. We spent several minutes calling Sound and backtracking as far as we dared to look for her, but we couldn't go back through the territory of the nest, and we trusted Sound to find her own way home.

Our next task was to get us, the eleven puppies, and Merc out of the woods without retracing our steps over the nest. We gave the bees a wide berth, cutting a u-turn so as to intersect the road closer to home.

This time, we heard the buzzing before the yelping and instead of pausing to consider, we ran. In the midst of this second and prolonged evacuation (we kept running until we hit the road), a bee found its way into Maddox's open mouth. Needless to say, the bee was not pleased.

About six confirmed human stings and countless puppy stings later, we emerged onto the barren inhospitable-to-bee-nests road. In the exposed sunlight, we could really take stock of eachother's injuries, with Colton's hand swelling to the size of a softball at risk of cutting of the blood flow to his fingers and Maddox's lip distorted in the style of a Picasso painting.

This was not a Kodak Moment™, this was a Benadryl moment.

We hightailed it back to the homestead, ultimately carrying a few puppies whose lollygagging belied the searing pain of their siblings and humans. Upon arrival, yes, Sound had beat us home after being spooked by a bee sting through her shed-out fur. All puppies were accounted for, and we sought refuge in the main cabin with antihistimines ingested and freezer packs of meat plastered to our arms, hands, and faces.

We were fine, no puppies suffered long term harm, Sound made it home, and Merc? With fur as thick as his, he was still confused why everyone was running.