Dog Bite

This week will forever be entrenched in my memory as the week my 8 yr. old boy got bitten by a dog. Let me start off by assuring you that he is fine and is recovering well.

We went to pick apricots with some friends at a dentist's house she found. It was a perfectly immaculate estate and very nice. Their were a couple kids we had not met before and they loved my little babies and wanted to take them for a little walk. #6 is very attached to me, so he of course wouldn't go with them, but #7 did. I sent #3 to stay with him and soon after realized they were out of sight, so I found them, called them and told them to stay closer to me where I could see them. They were right near our van where we had left the side door open and it looked like they were making their way up. I went to check on the other people on the other side of the house and #1 came running up telling me that #3 had been bitten by a dog. I couldn't believe it, I had heard no barking and I had no idea there were even any dogs over there. It turns out that this dog probably a labrador/ pit bull mix of some sort got out of his fenced yard and scared the kids and the kids all ran. The girls got the baby in the van, but the dog bit #3 when he was about 4 ft. from the van on his upper right arm.

#2 had brought her little first aid kit, so they had him bandaged up before I got there. I am such a baby when it comes to blood and pain -- I really hate it and I have a really hard time when it is my baby so I just left it wrapped and went to find out about the dog if it was sick or anything. The other mom had some neosporin and looked at the wound which I was too much of a baby to do and told me it would probably need stitches, then they told me I ought to take him to get it looked at and stitched. So I left and called my husband and had him call animal control.

My poor little guy was really shaken, I was pretty shaken, but we made it to our doctor's office to find that neither our doctor who is in our bishopric nor our bishop who is also a doctor and works there were in, so we went to the only available doctor there. Once my son was on the operating table and we were waiting for 30 minutes and showed it to the nurse, I found that I was O.K. to look at it and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. My son was more worried about the pain and if stitching it up would hurt more or getting the numbing shots. But he was very brave and did very well through the whole process. He cried a lot, but it wasn't too bad once the numbing medicine kicked in. He ended up with 9 stitches and a tetanus shot. We're putting medicines on it and keeping it covered. It's looking good so far, but I felt terrible because I forgot about his arm and grabbed him by it at #1's recital tonight because he was being squirrely. I felt so bad and apologized multiple times.

Anyway, I think he will be just fine. I'm still a little shaken. I am so thankful that it wasn't the 18 month old. My husband gave him a priesthood blessing at the beginning of the school year when he gave us all father's blessings and blessed my little #7 that angels would help protect him and keep him safe. I think we are witness to that happening this day, I'm sure there have been other times that I have just taken for granted. I thought about praying before we left that day, but pushed the thought out of my mind because we had prayed earlier with my husband before he left for work. I will be more mindful of the thoughts I have to pray in the future. So this has been a learning experience for us all.

It has taken a lot of time though and I'm still shaken and unnerved by the whole experience. I really don't like pain and suffering-- I think that's a big reason why I'm so into health food-- I don't like being sick or tired or anything. I am getting stronger though! We had a good lesson on civics and how to treat dogs also. The owner of the dog has been very cooperative and the dog will be put down after being quarantined and observed for 10 days. There have been no cases of dogs with rabies in Utah for ages, so everything should turn out just fine and we will all be a little wiser and better for it. My children need to stay in my sight at all times when we are in unfamiliar territory and I need to check and know the surroundings well before I let them all go.

What a day!