Trying to save nature

This morning I tried to save the life of a bumblebee, even though I am allergic to them if I am stung.  This poor little bee (I shouldn't even say little; in terms of bees, this guy was enormous - I think he was a bumblebee) got stuck in our screened in porch when we were working in the yard on Saturday.   Then it rained all day on Sunday and I saw him clinging for life on the screen but I figured since bees can't fly in the rain that he was waiting it out.

I saw him yesterday morning as well, but it was still raining so I let him be.  But this morning, he was still there and I could hear him buzzing softly.  I look at him closely and noticed that he was moving really slowly.  Although I feared for my life, I still felt so bad for him that I stuck out my finger.  He willingly crawled onto my finger and clung to it with his little bee-claws. 

He looked like this, only his wings were on top of each other (source)

Then I went out into the yard and held my finger up - "Fly away little bee! Come on, fly off!" 

But he wouldn't fly, and instead started crawling up my finger and in a moment of panic I flung him into the yard.  Instantly I felt bad.  So, I walked to where he had landed, put my finger out, and he once again climbed aboard.  I felt him buzzing again and noticed that his wings were stuck together.  Did that happen because he got wet when I flung him into the grass?  Or were they already stuck together from all of the moisture in the air from the rain?

Now what to do? I was already late for work and needed to get this bee to a place that was at least better than the grass or the porch screen so that I could feel less guilty for his death.  I tried to get him to climb onto a leaf of our rhododendron bush, but the leaf was weak and since he landed onto his back, he fell into the grass once again. 

Good god.  How much time am I going to spend on this bee?

So I picked him up again and took him over the dog wood tree.  The dogwood's flowers are sort of cup-shaped and so I figured he could sit in one of those.  I stood there patiently while he tested the strength of the dogwood flower and finally climbed on.  Of course instead of climbing into the flower cup, he grabbed on underneath and was thus upside down.  I didn't want him to fall off again, so I waited as he climbed across the bottom of the flower and then when he got the end, I bent the petal so that he could climb onto the top of the flower.  Seriously - I did all of this for a bee!

So I then proceeded to try to convince my dog to come inside, since did I already mentioned that I was late for work?  Of course Murph had no interest in coming inside on such a glorious spring morning and he ignored me for a solid 2 minutes which felt like 2 hours, until I was fed up and started walking up the hill, which is the sure fire way to let him know that I mean business.

Once Murph was down, I glanced over at the dogwood. 

I couldn't see the bee. 

I checked the flower and then the ground underneath and on my way back to check the flower again I saw him underneath the petal, still buzzing away, unable to fly. He seemed to have a good grip, and I knew that there really wasn't anything else that I could do for him. 

So I blew him a kiss, wished him the best, and went inside. 

But I can't stop thinking about that bee.  I wonder if he's still in the dogwood?  Do you think he'll survive?  How in the world did I become so emotionally attached to a little bumblebee???  I just need to remind myself that I did everything that I could - even went above and beyond the Mother Nature's normal call of duty - to help this bee survive.  I know that it hadn't been for our screened-in porch, he never would have gotten into this predicament in the first place, so I know it was least that I could do to give him one more chance at survival.

Good luck, Mr. Bumblebee.  I hope you make back it to your family and friends.

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