I got bit by a dog!

That’s right. I figured it up, as I had not made note of the date at the occurrence, that it happened on September 16th, 2010. This is, so far, the most detrimental thing to have happened to me in Georgia to date. Ok, that is dramatic. It is probably the most exciting thing though and I dined on it for weeks. Here is how it went down:

It was a Thursday and I was heading back from school. I live behind the school and I can take a shortcut through the yard to get home. Usually there was a young yellow dog there to bark at me as I came and went. I had been making his acquittance for a while at this point so wasn’t disturbed when he started in. It was about 4:15pm and my inaugural English Club had just ended. We had decided the basic aim of the club and I had a chance to see what level of students were going to show up. So the yellow dog is barking and he is immediately joined by Bambucha, a mid sized black dog from the street. He was the baby-daddy of my families’ dog’s puppies. So I knew both of these dogs as well as one knows dogs in Georgia. Because of the hour, no one was around. Usually, there are men loitering behind the school discussing the days business or washing the school vehicles. So I continued to walk my normal rout home when Bambucha moves out of sight. Just as I was wonder where he went, I feel something grab the back of my ankle. I turn, and there he is. At this moment, I find it humorous that my first response was “Oh no you didn’t!” He is barking at me and I pick up a stone and feign throwing. He and the yellow dog run away barking. I am non-plussed and lift the leg of my jeans to see what had happened. A few scrapes but nothing terrible. I walk toward the school and pause again. I check the other side of my ankle and sure enough, one tooth got through.

Let me take a moment to express my gratitude to Levi Strauss & Co. and whatever possessed me to wear jeans on such a warm day. My insistence on propriety in English club, saved me from a much worse injury.

So there it is, a hole and blood. I am annoyed. I am generally put-out when I am injured. Maybe it is a coping mechanism. Jeeze! Now I have to stop the bleeding, clean it out, call the doctor. *sigh* I think it masks my concern. So I make it into th school and see a student from one of my classes, Salome. I ask her for a towel or napkin (both words I know in Georgian) and she asked why. I showed her and she gets excited and disappears. I sit down in the hallway and call the PC doctor. I am explaining what has happened and she is running through some official chart type questions when Salome returns with teachers and no towel. Everyone is loud and more people come to look. I get up and move outside to explain the noise to the doctor. I will call her later. I go back in and ask for a napkin and no one is listening. On teacher tells me “Don’t worry, dog has infection!” She is corrected and laughs “Injection! Dog has injection!” (for the record, the dog did not have injection or infection). Finally, I look one teacher in the eyes and tell her I want a napkin. She responds and I am able to put some pressure on the wound and slow the bleeding. After some brief discussion of where I should go, I decide to walk home. I ask if anyone could drive me, but my Georgian is terrible and they congratulate me on having access to a car. I walk home, trying not to aggravate the injury but it continues to bleed. A few minutes later I am home and per the doctors orders I head towards the bathroom to rinse it. My host father sees me and I ask for soap. He gets excited at the site and tells Marie to get soap. I go upstairs and wash my ankle and rinse it. I talk to the doctor and make arrangements to get to Tbilisi for a rabies shot.

That night, I laid down with a frozen bottle of vodka on my ankle and made phone calls. The first to my parents to inform them before they found out on facebook. The second to Denise to ask about the bet we had made during PST. We all threw in betting on who would get bitten on a dog first. No one bet on me but the money was long spent anyway. I told her she was a terrible bookie. She would later offer to buy me a coke. I declined the gesture.

The next morning I went to Tbilisi and made it to my shot with an hour to spare. I got to stay in Tbilisi through Monday, when I received a second shot and went home. I returned to work and on that Thursday called the doctor and arrangements were made for antibiotics and more thorough cleaning on my part. I took the day off and got the worst case of pink eye I have ever had.

It took two months for the scab to finally fall off. Yeah gross, sorry. So here are the pictures. It is an odd angle so my ankle looks unusual.

 

Edit ( 28 November 2010) I forgot to add that about a month later, the dog was shot. I was sitting in my room when I heard the first shot. I knew it was a handgun and then I heard the second. I laid down in my bed because I am an alarmist (apparently). The shots were coming from the school yard. Dogs were barking and howling and I knew what was happening. I heard the last shot and immediately wished the shooter had had better aim. I was sad for that dog.

The next day in the cafeteria, the driving instructor, while slurping his soup, grinned and pantomimed a gun as he told me they killed the dog that bit me. I told him that I knew.

~ by kathryncaldwell on 27 November, 2010.