A Santa Ana family grieved the loss of three of their dogs, Australian shepherds, that they say were killed by bees.
The dogs' owner Linnea Chapman said she went into the backyard Tuesday night and found them dead.
"I went back in the house and got a flashlight," Chapman said. "I went out and stumbled across the first one. I couldn't believe it. I said, 'Wake up. Wake up' and then I saw the second one..."
Chapman called her vet who talked her through checking the dogs.
It was then she discovered the dogs were covered in bees.
She said she and her husband don't have children and the dogs, Bartlett, Bailey, and Remy, were like family.
They had the dogs when they were puppies.
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Chapman said she's in the process of having necropsies performed on the dogs to find out exactly how they died.
The city's animal control officers traced the swarm back to a hive in a shed to the rear of a home near where the dogs' bodies were found, police said. The property owners have made arrangements to have the hive removed, he said.
