The Scorpion!

With the onslaught of termites threatening to devour my house and any surrounding wooden objects, I decided that it would be prudent to remove any old wood that was laying around the yard.  First to go..the landscaping timbers that edged the rose garden.  These boards were rotted on the bottom and were an open invitation for termites to move right in for a meal!  I took Sunny, the pup, out with me and we tugged away on those boards! She was having a most wonderful time!  Once she realized that she could scratch, tug and pull all she wanted without me reprimanding her, she kept quite busy!  That was until she had the unfortunate encounter with the scorpion!

Now before anyone becomes overly concerned about the poor pup, let me explain that this was no ordinary scorpion.  This is a handmade, metal, yard sculpture that Mark and Joanna brought me from their stay in Arizona a few years back.  It is about fifteen inches long and is cut from one piece of metal.  The legs are bent downward and the tail rises above the body just like on a live scorpion.  Ever since they gave me the sculpture, it has had a home in the rose garden right beneath a beautiful lavender rose that was also a gift from them.  Today, Miss Sunny was busy-busy!  She pulled those timbers and gnawed on the garden hose!  She bounced around the rose garden and tried hard to help me by getting right underfoot!   Then she spied that scorpion.  At first, she barked at this strange monster in the garden!  Then she tried to protect me by grabbing the dreaded critter by the claw and pulling it from beneath the rose bush.  I did not worry too much about her playtime with the scorpion as I knew she could not damage it.  I should have worried that the sculpture might do her damage, though!  She, being a puppy with an attention span of a bean, soon lost interest in the scorpion and returned to tug on the water hose.  As she shook the hose, she backed up further and further from the faucet.  She backed and backed until she was almost on top of the scorpion.  AND then she plopped!  She sat right down on that scorpion's upturned tail!  That dog could not have yelped any louder had she actually been stung by a live critter!  Poor Sunny!

After checking her for any injuries, I nearly collapsed in a fit of giggles!  My poor baby was terrified of the scorpion now and was not having anything to do with it!  Sunny...Sunny..you really need to be a bit more careful where you sit!  Scorpions do sting! (Even metal ones!)  She decided that it was time to go take a dip in the doggy pool and leave the rose garden to me.