Sunday, 19 July 2015

bugs and thugs

Bugs.  MOUSES!

As a cat, I often worry about bugs.  Do you?

Once, a very long time ago before I was even born, one of my aunties ate a bug. The bug was mean and it scraped my auntie's throat when she swallowed it. Next thing she knew, the peeps were whisking her off to the doctor to be debugged.  Well technically, she wasn't being debugged. She was just having her throat seen to. MOUSES!

And speaking of things needing to be debugged...

Earlier this year, there were a lot of ants out and about in my yard.  They were everywhere!  Ants don't bother me too much, though.  In my opinion, they're one of the less buggy bugs.  They have a low bugginess quotient.  You know what I mean?  This is because ants pretty much stay out of my way.  Peep #1 always says, "as long as they don't come inside and as long as they're not carpenter ants..." but let me tell you, my peep couldn't recognise a carpenter ant to save her soul.  Ants could be walking around the yard, carrying little tool boxes and singing songs from the seventies and she STILL wouldn't recognise them as carpenter ants.  MOUSES!

Actually, as it has been raining quite heavily today, perhaps a few carpenter ants would like to build me a little boat or something.  I'd like to check out the nip plants at the far end of the garden but to do that, I might need a boat.

I'm just kidding, really.  Couple pairs of cat-sized hip waders will suffice.  MOUSES!

Yeah, rainy days...   What to do on a rainy day?  Can't go outside because it's raining.  Just have to stay inside where it's nice and dry, even if it is pretty boring.  Rainy days...  For all we know, it's going to be raining again tomorrow.  Which would be Monday.  Rainy days and Mondays. MOUSES!

From what I've seen, ants aren't too keen on rain but I'll tell you what bugs are.  SLUGS.  Slugs, the true thugs of the garden.

Don't you just hate it when you walk past a plant and a slug that was on that plant ends up stuck on your fur?  Talk about gross.  They're the grossest bugs on earth.  They're such...  slugs.  And talk about slimy.  Very icky, for sure.

It seems like only yesterday that the peep was being bugged by bugs, too.  Yup, Ol' Peepers managed to get herself stung the other day.  Actually, it was about a week ago.  A week ago yesterday.  MOUSES!

It's true.  She was out in the garden late last Saturday afternoon when she saw a weed.  Okay, she saw more than one weed.  She saw a whole whack of weeds.  At least I'm pretty sure she saw a whole whack of weeds because let me tell you, there were a whole whack of weeds to be seen but for some strange reason, she decided to pull up this one particular weed.  Yeah, just one of them. Of course, she may have intended on pulling up more than the one.  Whether that sole weed was the first of many or the only one on her hit list, we shall never know because when she pulled on that weed...

Let's just say, it was not a pretty sight.

Not a pretty sound, either.

Yup, you could have heard her for miles.  She screamed.  She screeched. She yelled at the top of her lungs.  For a moment there, I thought the peep was practising her caterwauling skills but then she ran.  I've never seen the peep run while caterwauling before so I figured caterwauling practise was not on her agenda at that time.

Apparently, when the peep pulled out the aforementioned weed, she also took out a weight-bearing wall of a wasps' nest.  It's true.  Those wasps had built a nest underground in my garden.  And I'll tell you what else is true.  The wasps did not take kindly to the peep's unexpected demolition services.  Let's just say, they won't be putting out any welcome mats for her any time soon.

Now I have to admit, the peep was totally justified in demolishing that old wasps' nest.  I checked at the county offices and there were no building permits issued.  There weren't even any applications submitted!  The wasps had no business building their nest in that garden at all.  It was an illegal wasps' nest, for sure.  MOUSES!

But whether the peep was justified or not, the wasps got a little hot under the collar although truth be told, they don't actually wear shirts with collars.  And when wasps get that way, one had best get out of their way.  Those wasps are nasty when angered, for sure.

After the peep stopped screaming and dancing...

Well she wasn't dancing, really.  More like hopping up and down with a lot of arm flinging.  Of course, I have seen worse on some of those So You Think You Can Dance auditions on TV. MOUSES!

Eventually, the peep calmed down enough for her to tally up the stings.  There were three.  Left hand, left leg and right arm.  Three stings.  Three measly little stings.  That's nothing!  I've been bitten more by mosquitoes than that, for sure.  MOUSES!

The peep sure did a whole lot of hooping and hollering for three little stings...

Well that was on Saturday.  Sunday, it was still pretty sore.  By Monday, she said she was fine.

But now it's a week later and the peep's arm has turned all warm and red.  And itchy, too.  Not sore and not swollen but warm, red and itchy.  At first, I thought that maybe she had fleas or something because fleas will make you itch for sure but since the red part is right where one of those wasps stung her, I'm kind of thinking it has something to do with last Saturday's So You Think You Can Dance audition.  MOUSES!

At first, the peep was still claiming she was okay and it was nothing to worry about but I took a good look at that arm of hers today and cried, "Enough of this masquerade!  That's your right arm, Peepers.  Your tin-opening arm!  You need that arm to open tins.  Never mess about with your tin-opening arm, Peepers, because my dinners are at steak!  I mean, stake but boy-oh-boy would steak ever make a nice dinner for me, for sure.  They have that in tins?  MOUSES!"

Believe it or not, the peep is thinking about calling the doctor tomorrow morning.  Only thinking about it, mind you but thinking, nonetheless and if she doesn't call, I might just call him for her.

That's the thing about peeps.  A cat gets one whisker out of place and the next thing you know, said cat is stuffed in a carrier and hauled off to hospital but when it's a peep who needs to visit the doctor?  They hem and they haw like no one has ever hemmed or hawed before.  Peeps.  Almost as bad as bugs.  Maybe even slugs.  Or thugs.

For the peep's sake, I sure do hope the doctor doesn't need to take her temperature.  MOUSES!


  1. OMC how scary...we hope the Peep gets those nasty stings looked at....we can't have her tin opening arm out of commission!!

    The Florida Furkids

  2. Poor peep! We can relate to that one, we've got some bugs here in the South that are quite evil, they are called Fire Ants. Their bites are horrible and painful and put our Mom in the ICU several years ago.

  3. Whiskers, Matriarch of Mischief19 July 2015 at 22:10

    Oh no! No thermometers

  4. Maybe those stings SHOULD get looked at! Just sayin'.

  5. We think she should definitely call the Dr. tomorrow! We have the dreaded Fire Ants here. They are awful. Be glad if they haven't made it to your corner of the world!
    Sending purrs for your peep's arm.

  6. Oh My! Best get peep to Dr peep fast in case she has a delayed allergic reaction thing going on! Do you have a carrier for her though? purrs

  7. Our Peep absolutely HATES bugs!

  8. Those biteys don't sound to good. All of us say, go get 'em checked, we wouldn't want to see any cats have to go hungry!

  9. can you call the bambalance to come and get her and take her to the horspital?

  10. Yikes! Wasps are scary little creatures. I hope that your peep is okay. It's always a good idea to get things checked by a doctor when you aren't sure about them. That would be really painful! It's a real blessing that she didn't get any more stings!

  11. Oh how our human mom HATES those yellow jacket wasps like nothing else. MOUSES! Please do all you can to shove your mom in the v-e-t cage and get her whisked off for a check up!

  12. Sounds like your peeps definitely needs to get those stings checked out. Always better to be safe than sorry. I keep away from wasps ever since I stepped on one and it stung my paw.

  13. Well Seville, you might tell her to put a paste of baking soda and water on the area where the sting was. Or maybe she just ought to check it out anyways, doesn't sound quite normal for a wasp sting, unless it was the black and white wasp, they last a longer time than a normal wasp sting. I love the temperature taking note LOL.

  14. OMG!!! Wasps! Those is terrible! Your poor Peep!!! Mes is ending her purrayers! And Seville, it finish the sentence game day, comes, finish the sentence and enters!!!

  15. I hope your Peep is OK, those wasps are very rude to build without permission and then attack when one has no idea they were even there.

  16. Don't mess with wasps ! Poor Peep ! He's lucky not to be allergic, but he has better to see a doctor for his arm, we don't want you to faint from hunger ! Purrs

  17. Oh boy! Might need to get the stings looked at then? I hate bees, I hate bugs period! Grrrrrrr to them!!!

  18. We think you ought to make that phone call for the peep....the warm and itchies sounds furry scary to us!

    Sometimes bugs get into our house and we likes to eat them. So far, no scratchy ones, thank Cod!

    Sasha, Sami, & Saku

  19. BREAKING NEWS... Peep #1 went to the see the doctor last night. Her doctor. Not mine. Anyway, the doctor said the stings weren't infected or anything. He gave her a prescription for a special cream to put on them as she appears to have had a localized allergic reaction. She needs to be super careful around wasps from now on because if she's stung again, the reaction is likely to be worse. Perhaps not so localized next time. MOUSES!

  20. Glad your peep went to that Dr peep. That info could save her life in future...has she got one of those bee keeper suits she can wear for gardening?

