I was headed up the hill on one of my loops around the neighborhood when I saw the dog sitting in his front yard. Kathryn\u2019s dog is usually in her house, barking and tearing up window blinds when I pass by. I\u2019m always glad there is glass between us.<\/p>\n
A red flag waved in my mind when I saw him out, owner nowhere in sight, so I crossed to the other side of the road a couple houses before I reached his. No need to make him feel threatened by being too close. Sadly, I was not far enough away.<\/p>\n
Just as I drew opposite his house, the dog charged me. I immediately yelled, \u201cNO!\u201d thinking I could scare him away or that Kathryn would hear and stop him. Her car was, after all, in the driveway.<\/p>\n
No such luck. The dog took one vicious bite of my left leg, just behind the knee, and fled back to his yard.<\/p>\n
I continued yelling in hopes Kathryn would hear and come restrain her dog as I grabbed my throbbing leg. Then I realized my hand was wet.<\/p>\n
Did I pee myself? <\/em>I wondered and pulled my hand away to discover it was red with blood.\u00a0\u00a0 My jeans were soaked with it.<\/p>\n Okay. I need to apply pressure and should sit down to do it. But if I sit right here, the dog might go for my throat. Oh, God. <\/em><\/p>\n I was worried about my injury but also concerned that the dog might attack me again or attack one of the many children in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n Who can help?<\/em> I wondered. From lack of cars in driveways, I could tell Cyndi wasn\u2019t at home, nor was Marta. Mary Anne\u2019s garage doors were open, so I rang her bell. No answer. No answer at Kassia\u2019s house, either, and no car at Nichole\u2019s house.<\/p>\n I started limping towards home. When I got in front of Molly\u2019s house, it occurred to me to try her door. She\u2019s a CCU nurse, after all.<\/p>\n Molly was home and, with one look at my face and bloody jeans, quickly led me to a chair in her kitchen. As I related what had happened, she cut open the leg of my pants\u2014my favorite jeans, of course, now ruined. Her immediate reaction:<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re going to the ER. This is bad, Karen.\u201d And it was. I had a two-inch gash with a piece of muscle hanging out.<\/p>\n Time for a wet cloth on my face. I was on the verge of passing out.<\/p>\n Molly called my husband, then I used her phone to call the police.<\/p>\n George arrived along with a fire truck and an ambulance. Molly had already wrapped my injury, stopping the blood flow, so the medics didn\u2019t do much more than check my blood pressure and pulse. Then they took me to the hospital on my very first ambulance ride. That\u2019s a lot of excitement for this old woman.<\/p>\n They wheeled me through the Emergency entrance and into an exam room, asked questions and checked my vitals, then a doctor shot me full of lidocaine (ouch!), thoroughly washed my wound, and stitched me back together.<\/p>\n The police made their report and had the dog picked up by Animal Control.<\/p>\n The wound bled for a couple of days, but I was able to avoid infection with antibiotic help. The worst part was the swelling and bruising, the deep tissue injury.<\/p>\n I\u2019m several weeks past the attack now, but my leg still hurts with every step I take and the bruising is something to behold. I\u2019m frustrated with not being able to walk my usual five miles a day. I want my life back, but I suppose I said the same thing after my two surgeries for breast cancer and after having part of my nose removed due to skin cancer.<\/p>\n Life is hard and we all face struggles. The best we can do is to try to follow God\u2019s instruction Book:<\/p>\n Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God\u2019s will for you in Christ Jesus. <\/strong>I Thessalonians 5:18 NIV<\/p>\n So I give thanks, thanks that I was attacked rather than a child, thanks for everyone who helped me, thanks that the injury wasn\u2019t any worse than it was, and thanks that it seems to be healing.<\/p>\n But occasionally I also feel the need to yell what I yelled immediately after that dog bit me.<\/p>\n \u201cSHIT!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was headed up the hill on one of my loops around the neighborhood when I saw the dog sitting in his front yard. Kathryn\u2019s dog is usually in her house, barking and tearing up window blinds when I pass by. I\u2019m always glad there is glass between us. A red flag waved in my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=461"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":483,"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461\/revisions\/483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}