Dog Attack on Christmas

A dog that lives in front of or below my house

There are may be more dogs in Tarawa than people. The latest census indicates that there are 4 to 5 dogs per household and today one of them bit me.  I had gone jogging this morning up to the parliament building which is about 3 kms from my house. Just as I a turned around to come back, a dog came running after me. I just kept going and ignored him as this is an everyday occurrence. Nothing has ever happened before but today was different.  The dog bit into my calve and then went for my butt which is when I started screaming and this seemed to have scared him off because he turned around and went home. The wounds don’t hurt that much but my feelings were hurt quite badly and I have to admit that I was feeling pretty sorry for myself. There were plenty of people and cars around but no one stopped to help me. My leg was covered in blood so it is not like it wasn’t obvious that I was hurt. Anyway, they just stared. So I had to keep jogging because my house was 3 kms away and I needed to get my car and drive to the hospital to get a tetanus shot. The only hospital is at the end of island and it takes at least 45 minutes to get there.

So now I have been to the hospital, which was an excursion in itself and gave me something to do on this Christmas day. There didn't appear to be a reception area so I just walked into a room with a patient laying on bed. Someone asked me what was wrong and I told them that I had been bitten by a dog and they helped me right away. I got the shot in the butt and the nurse told me to keep the wounds—I have 3—open so they can heal faster.  I am a little worried though as one hasn’t stopped bleeding for 3 hours now and other people are actually concerned.  A young girl even offered to carry my groceries out to the car for me which was sweet. Fortunately the Internet is working today so I was able to find out that applying ice and pressure helps. I sure hope this works because although the people are nice and the service is free, I would rather avoid the hospital.