Believe it or not, but I was attacked by a dog tonight. I decided to go on a nice leisurely walk around my neighborhood after work since I don't do hikes anymore due to my rattlesnake encounter. I thought there could be no harm or danger involved so long as I stay on the well-travelled sidewalk. WRONG!!!
I was about two minutes from home when I approach a young couple walking their two dogs. They happen to be my neighbors across the stairwell in fact. Let me preface this story by first tellig you they are the kind of people who treat their dogs like they are their own children. They walk them like fifty times a day, for all I know they cook them steaks for dinner and bath them daily. They really are a little nutty about their dogs. Sorry, just a small side note.
Anyways, as I am passing this couple walking their "children", one dog decides to get furocious and jumps up at me. It gets a piece of my arm and bites down in one quick swoop. "Did this really just happen to me?" I ask. "Do dogs on leashes really just jump up and bite an innocent walker's arm totally unprovoked?" Apparantly they do. I was a little in shock, especially when I looked down at my arm and saw the battle wounds. There was blood. This stupid dog broke the skin. My first words to the dog's owner were, "I can't get rabies right now, I am trying to get pregnant. Does your dog have rabies?" It just came out and I didn't really have time to think how lame that sounded. She reassured me the dogs were vaccinated and had nothing to worry about.
I quickly called Zac, sobbing at this point, and told him what happened. Lets just say I may have over-reacted a little according to some people, but I was a little startled and shocked all at the same time. We ended up calling animal control to have them investigate the scene. Was this dog really vaccinated for rabies or were they just telling us so we didn't worry? We shall find out within ten days. The animal control is going to perform a ten day quarantine to evaluate the dogs behavior and test him for rabies. Chances are I am rabie-free, but who knows, how many people run into rattlesnakes hiking? I seem to be having bad luck with animals these days.
Deep down inside I think this dog attack had something to do with the way I may have treated some of my childhood dogs growing up. Call it what you want, but I didn't really love petting my dogs, touching them, sometimes feeding them, walking them or bathing them. Ironic thing is the dog that bit me tonight was a cocker spaniel and that was the first kind of dog I ended up giving away because I neglected it so bad. I put a curse on myself I'm afraid.
Ok, so this photo probably shows off my hairy arms more than the actual bite marks, but I thought you might appreciate a visual. I know, I know, it doesn't really look like anything, but it is, and it really hurt. So my much anticipated relaxing night of reading a book on the couch turned into one filled with filling out a dog attack report and worrying I might have rabies. Ay-ay-ay-ay!
