DOGBITE!!!

I saw this on facebook:
Judith Ann Patterson - Can't believe it! A little beagle bit me today while I was on my walk! I'll attach the photo as proof! How bizarre! He was on a leash--I didn't do anything to provoke such aggressive behavior! Jeepers!

Her daughter Jessica commented: geez! What did the owner say?

I eMailed Judi: yes, what DID the owner say??
That is TERRIBLE!!
Has he bitten anyone before? If this is new behaviour for him/her maybe he is coming down with rabies! I hope you got the name and number of the person. AND reported it to the authorities.
Dog bite is not a LIKELY source for tetanus, although Spores of the tetanus bacteria, Clostridium tetani, usually are found in the soil, but can occur virtually anywhere. If deposited in a wound, the bacteria can produce a toxin that interferes with the nerves controlling your muscles. But then, you know all that.

Judi eMailed:
Well, I’ll include the “report” I wrote up for the police officer who came to get the report. He took a picture, etc., and then went to the people’s home, so I don’t know how they reacted. I can’t really get a good picture myself, so I’ll see if I can get someone else to take one for me. I just got done looking at it and I realize that although I washed it with mild soap as the Kaiser on call person said, there were two places that had kind of “healed” over and so I just now have been “scrubbing” on them to open them up so that I could put the Neosporin in there, too. I also (like a good girl) marked with a Sharpie the edges of the redness. And if it’s a larger area in the morning, I’ll see about whether I should go in. But I’m sure it will be just fine.

I have no idea about the owner. The man who was walking the dogs was kind of youngish (30-40) and he was completely surprised about what happened, gave me his address, and then I walked back home. (The police officer said that actually the walking home probably made it less sore and less likely to bruise.)

It didn’t hurt that much walking home; I was more angry about it and kinda scared at the same time. You know how much I do NOT like blood, etc., etc. But it didn’t bleed much, and as I said—if it looks the least bit “iffy” tomorrow, I’ll go in and get it checked out. Right now it stings a little but that’s cause I got a bit more thorough with the soap.

When the officer came, I had the photo for him and the following typed report; he kinda joked that maybe I could just write it up for him on his computer, too. (I had told him about Ted.) I think he did appreciate it—but he sure was a slow typist. Then he wasn’t quite sure were the street was (it’s the very west-most El Cajon street), so while he was doing the report I went in and got him Map Quest directions, so he was very happy.

I told him I was amazed at how much time went into a simple dog bite report, and kind of apologized for such a boring call (he had just come on duty about 30 minutes earlier). But he said that he was back from vacation and it was kind of nice to ease back into work with something so simple—and CALM.

MY REPORT:

Sunday, June 20: Approximately 5:20 p.m. I was walking down Hihill. Coming up the hill was a man with 2 little dogs (think they were beagles), both on long leashes. As we passed, we each said “Hi” and one of the dogs lunged at my arm; I felt him touch my arm and I noticed that it was red for a while, but he didn’t break the skin. In just the next instant as I walked past, he bit my right calf (the fleshy part). His leash was quite long, so the dog was able to turn around as I went past.

I stopped, told the man his dog had bit me. Apparently he had not seen it. I then asked him where he lived because I wanted to make sure that the dogs had had their rabies shots. He said he lived at 302 Hihill.

I walked home, phoned my son, who is a sergeant in La Mesa PD. He checked and saw that Hihill was in El Cajon (I had thought it was La Mesa). He told me to phone 570-3311 so that your people could ascertain that the dog had had its rabies shots, etc.

NOTE; The man had two dogs; since he did not actually see the dog bite me, he could not know which dog it was. Please check on both dogs because they looked very similar; I certainly wouldn’t be able to say which one did the actual biting.