“He’s in intensive care. He was stung over a hundred times. They’re saying it’s even more of a miracle that he survived!”

“And Strider?” I asked.

“Just a few stings on his nose!”

“Another miracle!” I said.

“Yes,” and then Maggie said, “We’re going to have to stay here for twenty-four hours because you received so many stings, baby. The doctors need to make sure there aren’t any complications, and so they are requiring you to stay. I’m okay apparently, and Layla, well, she’s just saying ‘doggie’ a lot, so somebody is going after Strider and they’re going to bring him over so that Layla can play with him.”

“They’re going to bring him in the hospital?” I asked.

“No, Layla and I are cleared to check out, so when Strider gets here we’ll just go out to the park next door. Then after that we’ll hang out here with you until they release you.”

“I guess we better call into work,” I said.

“Oh, don’t worry about that. I already have,” Maggie said.

“Everybody is relieved that we are okay. They said to take our time getting back.”