Her Final Dawn Flight

It was a scorcher this morning, making it particularly hard to sleep. I had taken our dog out for a pee! I could see it was going to be clear skies so came back inside, to grab my phone. I had just gotten back outside when I saw this sweet lady bee on a pre-dawn sugar-raid.  As she busily buzzed around the plant in the photo a sudden stray gust of wind whipped her away from the plant and against my dog lying next to me. 

She naturally snapped at the bee and as a defense action, stung my dog on the leg, she yelped and from the corner of my eye, I saw her entrails extending from her rear and I knew she was mortally wounded. My old had survived several bee stings in her life and just had to remove the sting carefully, which I did. The bee reached toward her death wound and suddenly I was saddened by this scene, playing out in front of me, for her there would be no return trip to the warmth of the hive, no chrysalis metamorphoses into a butterfly caterpillar, just death.