What a morning!

I did my usual let all the animals outside this morning; feed and water, etc. The puppies were playing in the garden and I turned the drip system on to water then came back in the house for something.

A bit later hubby was walking through the living room (and obviously looked out the window) because he said, “The puppies are out.”

What?!

I ran to the front door and scurried out of it and down the steps to find Kitty, Marshall, and Doc in the front yard!

Apparently, the exercise pen was too close to the low spot around the pear tree (or the puppies pushed it) and they were able to escape under the pen. But they hadn’t just gotten out of the ex-pen, they had managed to get out of the garden too and were exploring the front yard. The little stinkers!

So we scooped them up, placed them back in the pen and fixed things so it wouldn’t happen again. Hoover, Kirby, and Festus had stayed put. Then I served breakfast to occupy their time and fill their tummies.

Mornings are busy with feeding, watering and the usual chores.  I’m in and out of the house. So the next trip out to the garden I noticed Festus kind of sitting off by himself and holding up one paw. 🙁

Uh-oh……now what? The poor little guy looked a little forlorn sitting off by himself. I scooped him and noticed the big pad on the paw he was holding up seemed pinker and more swollen than the opposite foot. My guess is one of those stinkin’, nasty, mean, annoying (should I go on?) wasps stung him. They are terrible this time of year. We have wasp traps set all over the yard but they are still bad. And probably because the pups had been eating breakfast there was one on the ground that Festus must have stepped on.

I headed to the house with Festus to mix up a drawing concoction of baking soda and activated charcoal (both help with things like this). Although the charcoal is very messy and staining, it is one of God’s natural remedies, I believe. (A friend of ours just successfully treated her daughter’s brown recluse spider bite with charcoal poultices. And yes, it was verified by a doctor to be a brown recluse spider bite!)

I mixed it up kind of sloppy and thick so I could get his little paw in the dish.

Yep, it’s a black mess! And it stains. But we don’t care if it works!

After soaking it for about twenty minutes (he actually fell asleep and faceplanted into the charcoal!) I took him to the laundry sink and rinsed off the messiness, then wrapped him in a towel.

And then he fell asleep.

I let Flower in after hubby brought the other pups inside and Festus was definitely feeling better by then. He was happy to see mom too.