Ray Smells a Bee

Ray demonstrating Dumbo mode

Ray was in the front hall "looking" at a spot on the carpet. His ears were thrust forward in what I refer to as the "Dumbo the Elephant" pose, as in this photo of him looking down the stairs. He uses it a lot when trying to figure something out. I walked over to see what he had found. 
There was a bee crawling along the carpet. Ray looked like he wanted to eat it, so I grabbed an envelope, scooped up the bee, and started to carry it to the front door. 
When I got close to the door, the bee flew off and landed on the screen, behind the mesh screen protector. There was no way to get to the bee without removing the protector, so I made the command decision to ignore it and return to reading the newspaper.

After a few minutes, I noticed that Ray was snuffling around the entryway. I got up to watch him. He was sniffing the carpet, then the hall table, then the bottom of the door, then higher and higher until he had pinpointed the bee on the screen behind the protector. He jammed his nose against the metal as far as he could, sniffing, sniffing, sniffing. The bee wasn't moving and Ray's nose was millimeters away. I thought he might inhale the furry bee body, he was so close.

As I watched him, I found myself wondering what life would be like if I could smell a single bee.