The Late Night Buzz

No, I am not referring to coffee in my title. I am referring to a sound that woke me up a 1:37AM last night. Something.... buzzing. My little feline was pretending to be night hunter and swatting at something near my head. Half-awake, I look over and see a large blackish object flitting about, banging into the nearby window. I watch for a few minutes, unable to make our what kind of insect it is. Resigned and awake, I move to turn on the light.

I see this:A yellowjacket. A large - yellow - buzzing - stinging - yellowjacket. And I am in my skivvies with lots of vulnerable, fleshy, half-awake body to tempt the offending intruder. And I do not like this.

I back away and dress myself. Jeans and long sleeves. Protect the skin! The yellowjacket has taken a fondness for the mattress and the wall next to our bed. I also note with scientific fascination, that the insect is attracted to the light of my reading lamp. I pray the wasp gets burnt by the halogen lamp, but it seems unaffected.

Still, I hesitate. I don't really enjoy killing things. Especially not when I might miss and enrage the stinging beast. So I leave it to our night hunter, our prowling cat Morgan.

Morgan, for her part, is fascinated and bored at the same time. Honestly, I don't know what else I would expect from a cat. She would stare at it... bat at it for a bit... then walk away as if she found something better to do. She once put her paw on it and then jumped back, as if surprised that it was moving. After watching the pathetic dance between cat and yellowjacket for a few minutes, I got impatient. Clearly my cat sucks as a hunter. I grab a notebook and wham it against the wall. The ensuing crunch is both satisfying and horrifying.

Here, for you all to review, is the yellowjacket that disrupted my precious, precious sleep And if you think I've just got some super-zoom thing going on, here is our friend with a quarter. Notice how this thing is ALMOST THE SAME SIZE AS THE QUARTER:
It was 2:13 by the time I had taken pictures, rearranged the furniture, and disposed of the body. Morgan was happily purring as I settled into bed.

Mike, for his part, had fallen asleep in the office and missed the whole thing. Jerk.