Another One Bites The Dust
I had another post planned for today, but I am still freaked out by what happened yesterday so we are going to talk about scorpions again.
With our continued triple digits, we've been very dry and that seems to bring the scorpions indoors more, looking for moisture, I suppose.
Iko, my scorpion dog usually alerts me when he sees one. After that incident when I was stung, I know scorpion stings leave no mark on the skin, just terrible pain. I've come to the horrible realization the same thing must have happened to Iko when he was a puppy.
When he was about six months old, he hobbled over to us one night, whining and limping badly. We checked him thoroughly but could not find a single mark or twisted bone.
At the time, we chalked it up to growing pains. Sometimes puppies grow too fast and their little bones hurt--just like kids. He limped for two days and then everything was back to normal. (We also babied him for two days.)
It wasn't until I got stung that I realized it had to have been a scorpion that got him too. Somehow, he must have made the connection between scorpion stings and intense pain, which is why he is so determined to tell me when he finds them.
Last night as I gathered the boys to go to bed, I noticed the lights on in my big closet. (They turn on automatically when the doors are open.) It had to be Tank. He often pushes the doors in so he can lay on the nice cushy carpet.
I walk in and he pops his head up. Sitting barely three inches away is a scorpion!
I don't know where I found the strength (or speed), but I lunged toward Tank and pushed that 130 pound dog away from the scorpion. In a single fluid move, I crushed that scorpion so fast and so hard, there was nothing left.
Hell hath no fury like a woman stung.
Yes, I hold a grudge. Scorpions have earned my vendetta.
Luckily, Tank is lazy at night. (We call him our solar powered dog.) He doesn't move around much, which is probably why the scorpion didn't sting him. I'm just glad I found that thing before he did.
I have to admit, I surprised myself with how fast I moved. But that was my baby. I didn't want to see him hurt.
Has anything ever happened to you that you surprised yourself with your speed or strength? Do tell. I want to hear your adventure stories.
With our continued triple digits, we've been very dry and that seems to bring the scorpions indoors more, looking for moisture, I suppose.
Iko, my scorpion dog usually alerts me when he sees one. After that incident when I was stung, I know scorpion stings leave no mark on the skin, just terrible pain. I've come to the horrible realization the same thing must have happened to Iko when he was a puppy.
When he was about six months old, he hobbled over to us one night, whining and limping badly. We checked him thoroughly but could not find a single mark or twisted bone.
At the time, we chalked it up to growing pains. Sometimes puppies grow too fast and their little bones hurt--just like kids. He limped for two days and then everything was back to normal. (We also babied him for two days.)
It wasn't until I got stung that I realized it had to have been a scorpion that got him too. Somehow, he must have made the connection between scorpion stings and intense pain, which is why he is so determined to tell me when he finds them.
Last night as I gathered the boys to go to bed, I noticed the lights on in my big closet. (They turn on automatically when the doors are open.) It had to be Tank. He often pushes the doors in so he can lay on the nice cushy carpet.
I walk in and he pops his head up. Sitting barely three inches away is a scorpion!
I don't know where I found the strength (or speed), but I lunged toward Tank and pushed that 130 pound dog away from the scorpion. In a single fluid move, I crushed that scorpion so fast and so hard, there was nothing left.
Hell hath no fury like a woman stung.
Yes, I hold a grudge. Scorpions have earned my vendetta.
Luckily, Tank is lazy at night. (We call him our solar powered dog.) He doesn't move around much, which is probably why the scorpion didn't sting him. I'm just glad I found that thing before he did.
I have to admit, I surprised myself with how fast I moved. But that was my baby. I didn't want to see him hurt.
Has anything ever happened to you that you surprised yourself with your speed or strength? Do tell. I want to hear your adventure stories.
Comments
I've amazed myself with super speed once when i thought my kidelt was choking. I don't even remember how I materialized through a crowded room to get to her side, but i did. and fast. :)
So glad you were there for her!
The ones we have here hurt like the dickens, but they're not dangerous.
Sorry about your hubby. Hope he's okay.
I saw a "Fear Factor" once where the contestants had to be locked into a class coffin and had scorpions poured over them and had to stay in for a minute or something. I remember thinking, "$50,000 is NOT enough money."
Blech.
And, re: superhuman speed and strength -- when it comes to kids (and that includes the four-footed ones) I think we all have that!!!
I'm so glad you saved Tank the pain of a sting.
Ref: Fear Factor
Oh no, no, no, no, no. I would risk getting stung to save someone, but not for money. No way.
We're supposed to get some heat relief later this week, right?
~Marguerite
LOL! Not just gross. Evil. Mean. And downright vindictive.
Fortunately, so am I.
I think we're going to cool off into the high 90s later this week.
I hope so anyway. I've had my fill of summer. How about you?
Glad you saved Tank from that mean beastie.
Winning? I dunno. But at least I'm making Casa Zannini a dangerous place for scorpions. :grin:
My hats off to you! You are now Iko and Tank's hero. Scorpions are nasty and dangerous! I loathe them! I'm REALLY surprised that nothing serious happened to Iko or you when you got stung. I've heard of people that have died of a sting from these heinous arthropods. I do remember my grandmother killing one that had crept onto her bed, yuk! it was so hard she had to hit it at least three times with the shoe heel in order to finally kill it. We were living in a tropical country at the time. I love nature but I hate anything under the arachnid class.
Nonetheless, the sting is painful enough that I wouldn't wish it on anybody.
Anyway, turns out it was about a 6" grass snake he was not happy when interrupted in it's efforts to enjoy a moonlit swim when captured by 2 bulging eyed humans in a net and then bashed in the head because it tried to bite said humans....
2 years ago, yeah that is it because this summer was the first time in 2 years that we have swum in the pool at night since!!!
jackie ^_^
OMG! I could not stop laughing. I'm sorry. You described it so vividly I could see it all in slow-mo.
Glad the snake wasn't dangerous.
Thanks for the story. That's a keeper!
I was about fourteen months pregnant and sitting in my Moby Dick suit on the deck near the shallow end of my friend's pool. My two year old son was following the other kids across the deck at the deep end and managed to slip and fall in. I don't really remember leaving my chair or hitting the water but I had made it the length of the pool and was able to grab him the first time he bobbed to the surface. Afterwards, my friends (and I use the term loosely) said they had never seen anything that big move that fast.
14 months! LOL. But I get your drift.
You're lucky you didn't hurt yourself. Those 'friends' should have jumped in the water immediately instead of waiting on a poor pregnant woman to show them up.
Glad you and your son came out of it all right.
Scary.
My feat happened 20 years ago and it was super-human strength. My husband and I were just moving into our new home (where we still live) and we were unloading the moving van. It was just the two of us and he had this giant drill press that was at the back of the truck. In the process of moving things around it, he inadvertently tipped the drill press and I watched as it was about to fall onto his head. I quickly sprung into action and caught the drill press (which weighs a few hundred pounds!) I am not all that strong but adrenalin and love saved him from being squished like a pancake.
Holy cow! I know how much those drill presses weigh. There's no way I'd be able to hold one back.
I'm so glad you were there for your husband. It sounds to me, he married his own guardian angel. :o)
--now there's got to be a novel in that. :grin:
Aha! A plus for living in NJ - no scorpions! It's not much, but still... :D
Ref: scorpions
I have to admit, the scorpions are the worst part of living here. I'm glad Iko is such a good scorpion hunter. Between the two of us we made a good dent in their population.
Back when my poochie (Sugar) was alive & we still lived down in SB, we had a problem w/a family of raccoons invading our attic/backyard/house foundation. One night I let Sugar out to do her business, leaving her unattended so I could feed my cat Dinah. Suddenly I hear this panicked, high-pitched yelp. (Sugar had never once made a sound like that in all the time we'd had her).
Just as I opened the back door, she bounded onto our deck with a raccoon twice her size in hot pursuit. It grabbed Sugar from behind, getting her beneath it in a defenseless positing in a matter of seconds. Before that point, I'd been frozen by the surreality of it all, but once I saw Sug under attack, I ran out of the house (barefoot) determined to kick the ever loving shit out of Rockie the Raccoon for daring to threaten my baby.
Luckily it ran away thanks to my screams of rage and Sugar only ended up with a little cut on her leg, but holy cow - I was ready to tear that animal's head off. Even recounting the story now brings back all the rage I felt in that moment.
Holy moley! The shotgun would have come out had I seen a raccoon coming after my babies.
Someday I'll have to recount all the chicken dinners this one raccoon used to eat at our expense. They are voracious and brutal animals when they kill.
Glad you saved Sugar! It would have been a horrible way to die.