diff --git a/CHANGES.md b/CHANGES.md
index ad5612d..311e4bf 100644
--- a/CHANGES.md
+++ b/CHANGES.md
@@ -2,7 +2,8 @@
 
 ## bunyan 0.14.2 (not yet released)
 
-(nothing yet)
+- [issue #45] Fix bunyan CLI (default output mode) to not crash on a 'res'
+  field that isn't a response object, but a string.
 
 
 ## bunyan 0.14.1
diff --git a/bin/bunyan b/bin/bunyan
index f1bd398..4387237 100755
--- a/bin/bunyan
+++ b/bin/bunyan
@@ -612,8 +612,9 @@ function emitRecord(rec, line, opts, stylize) {
     }
     delete rec.msg;
 
-    if (rec.req) {
+    if (rec.req && typeof(rec.req) === 'object') {
       var req = rec.req;
+      delete rec.req;
       var headers = req.headers;
       var s = format("%s %s HTTP/%s%s", req.method,
         req.url,
@@ -644,10 +645,10 @@ function emitRecord(rec, line, opts, stylize) {
         rec["req." + k] = req[k];
       })
     }
-    delete rec.req;
 
-    if (rec.client_req) {
+    if (rec.client_req && typeof(rec.client_req) === 'object') {
       var client_req = rec.client_req;
+      delete rec.client_req;
       var headers = client_req.headers;
       var hostHeaderLine = '';
       var s = '';
@@ -682,10 +683,10 @@ function emitRecord(rec, line, opts, stylize) {
       })
       details.push(indent(s));
     }
-    delete rec.client_req;
 
-    if (rec.res) {
+    if (rec.res && typeof(rec.res) === 'object') {
       var res = rec.res;
+      delete rec.res;
       var s = '';
       if (res.header) {
         s += res.header.trimRight();
@@ -717,9 +718,8 @@ function emitRecord(rec, line, opts, stylize) {
       // This *does* have the potential to stomp on a literal 'res.foo' key.
       Object.keys(res).forEach(function (k) {
         rec["res." + k] = res[k];
-      })
+      });
     }
-    delete rec.res;
 
     if (rec.err && rec.err.stack) {
       details.push(indent(rec.err.stack));
@@ -978,7 +978,7 @@ process.on('uncaughtException', function (err) {
   console.error('* * *');
   console.error('* node version:', process.version);
   console.error('* bunyan version:', getVersion());
-  console.error('* argv:', process.argv);
+  console.error('* argv: %j', process.argv);
   console.error('* stack:');
   console.error(indent(err.stack));
   console.error('* * *');
diff --git a/test/cli.test.js b/test/cli.test.js
index 99bdfb5..4542b2b 100644
--- a/test/cli.test.js
+++ b/test/cli.test.js
@@ -316,3 +316,13 @@ test('robust req handling', function (t) {
     t.end();
   });
 });
+
+test('non-object res field', function (t) {
+  var expect = '[2012-10-10T16:14:07.610Z]  INFO: cnapi.get_existing_nics/24440 on 710c784f-6aa5-428c-9074-e046c3af884e: got existing: 02:08:20:d7:53:e0 (job_uuid=3499b13e-dbca-4331-b13a-f164c0da320a, nic=<unknown>, res="error: Unknown nic \\"020820d753e0\\"")\n';
+  exec(BUNYAN + ' corpus/non-object-res.log', function (err, stdout, stderr) {
+    t.error(err);
+    t.equal(stdout, expect);
+    t.end();
+  });
+});
+
diff --git a/test/corpus/non-object-res.log b/test/corpus/non-object-res.log
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cf3bbd0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/corpus/non-object-res.log
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"name":"cnapi.get_existing_nics","job_uuid":"3499b13e-dbca-4331-b13a-f164c0da320a","hostname":"710c784f-6aa5-428c-9074-e046c3af884e","pid":24440,"level":30,"nic":"<unknown>","res":"error: Unknown nic \"020820d753e0\"","msg":"got existing: 02:08:20:d7:53:e0","time":"2012-10-10T16:14:07.610Z","v":0}