Facebook Note from 6/29/2010 ~ "Toby and the Bee"

A little bit ago Toby and I were outside watering flowers - I call it "watering Toby" b/c he thinks his job is to drink the water from my watering can or hose before it reaches the flowers.So we did this for a bit and a big bumble bee got his attention on one of the flowers and he starts chasing it and snapping at it like he does flies if they get in the house. I've never discouraged him because it keeps him occupied for awhile before something else gets his attention, or he eats the fly. But, as I'm watching him chase this bee I am thinking (may have even said it outloud) 'what a dumb a$$, you're going to get stung, then what're you gonna do?!'

Well, I found out, because sure enough Toby chomps down and gets the bee and almost instantly he whines and his paw goes to his mouth and he scratches. He then makes eye contact with me and......FALLS OVER TO HIS SIDE!! I mean he fell straight over like he just literally keeled over. I run over there - hose and all-yelling, "It killed him! It killed him!" I get on my hands and knees by him and I'm crying and saying his name and he's laying there with his tongue stretched out and laying on the grass. The neighbor hears me and starts heading over and asks what happened or something and I'm like, 'He caught a bee and it stung him and he must be allergic!!'

I'm sure he is dead but then he blinks a couple of times. So I now start yelling that he must be just paralyzed or something and the only thing I could think to do was run the hose on his poor tongue laying on the grass with the remnants of a bee on it. I start to wonder if I should check his tongue for the stinger - and asked my neighbor if he could be in that epileptic shock (which he told me later that it's not EPILEPTIC shock but something else that I didn't really pay attention to) when Toby starts lapping up the water from the hose. Then, he sits up and licks my face. Just that fast. The whole thing was just the oddest thing - - - and really now that I think about it was about the funniest damn thing I've ever seen. It was like one of those dogs on cartoons that get clobbered and they roll their eyes and fall over!!

I'm not sure what happened.....maybe he passed out? maybe it just hurt so much he thought he was dieing? maybe he's a bit melodramatic (I don't know where he'd get that from)? or what...all I know is when we got back in the hosue I got 2 ice cubes and he sat here and as I held them in my hand he put his tongue against them. Now he's sleeping but I keep saying his name to make sure he's okay because I don't know if it's like when you get a concussion and you shouldn't sleep for awhile?