This guy....

Meet my brother's dog, Marlin.  He's named after the firearm, not the fish!

He is absolutely the sweetest pit bull I've ever met.  But, bless his heart, he doesn't have the best luck in the world.  Let me explain.....

About a month ago we had some very much needed rain.  It came in the form of what I would swear was a mini hurricane.  We lost giant limbs out of two pecan trees, and lightening hit our biggest.  My in-laws (The People Across the Pond) had a live oak completely uprooted.  It hailed, it set the woods on fire and it knocked the power out for hours.

Back to Marlin.  My brother works second shift and came home shortly after everything simmered down.  He knew about the bad storm, so he went to check on his pup.  Marlin wasn't in his pen.... his pen wasn't even there!  It was laying on the ground about 50 feet from where it had originally been, dismantled and nearly destroyed.  He still hasn't found the dog house that was inside of it.  Sure that Marlin had gone to safety with our dogs in the in-laws shed, he went inside and to bed.  The next morning, our pups were home, but Marlin still had not shown up.  That afternoon when he and his wife rode around the ponds surveying the damage.  That's when he heard it.... a tiny, distant yelp.  "That sounds like a dog in a dam," he thought.  Sure enough, there he was, in the damn dam overflow of the middle pond.  (If you look at the header picture, their house is now in the opening on the far right.  The middle pond is behind where the picture was taken, about the same distance away.  It's FAR.)  He was alive, but barely.  Will had to crawl in with Marlin to be able to pull him out.  Poor thing had tried and tried to climb his way out, filing down his nails to the quick and turning his pads into hamburger meat.  He recovered surprisingly fast!

Fast forward about three weeks. 

While at work, I got a text from my brother.  "How many wasp stings does it take to kill a 75 pound dog??"  Dear Lord.....

Jami and I frantically searched the internet.  Not surprisingly, we could only find something on how to treat one or two stings... not what Marlin was facing.  The best thing?  Benadryl and baking soda.  And lots of it!!

 I wouldn't think twice about saying that homeboy had a good 100+ stings all over his body.  His ears and under his chin were the worst.  I don't have a picture of it (I really didn't want to take one), but I'm sure you can imagine.  I didn't think it was wasps, though.  Will hadn't actually seen what stung Marlin, and I had a better guess.  Bees!  The farmers have bee hives scattered through the fields around here.  There's a huge pile of them right across the road from our house.  My sister-in-law and I drove over to check them out and, sure enough, one of them looked to be slightly tipped over.  We didn't get too close to really check it out, but I'm sure that's where they came from. 

The swelling didn't last long, but he's got polka dot skin!  He almost looks like something out of a circus show.  Not really funny, but we have to smile about it now.  :)

Less than a week later, Marlin went missing again, still sporting his polka dot, mange-looking skin.  The doggie police got him!  He's back at home now.  I can only imagine what they were thinking was wrong with him!  On top of the stings, he was covered in fleas when he got home!  Poor fella! 

Maybe this time he's learned his lesson.  I kinda doubt it!

So, the next time you think you've got it bad.... remember sweet 'ole Marlin.  It could be worse!