I was attacked by a dog last night. No major injury resulted, just a coin-sized blood bruise, an achy muscle, and a tooth scrape on my leg, but what a shock.
Tod & I were almost home from a late evening walk when we passed a neighbor walking his knee-high, white Japanese Spitz. It was a typical dog on a leash so I wasn’t paying much attention to the dog or its owner as Tod & I were conversing, but without warning the dog lunged at me.
I paid attention then!
Needless to say we all stopped; the owner curbing the dog; Tod checking on my well-being. I hitched up my skirt to reveal an already angry blue bruised leg and a bit of blood. The owner couldn’t believe it and apologised with a deep bow. I think he might have been more stunned than I was.
I was wearing a skirt and glad of it because it had hidden the exact position of my limbs. As it was, the dog bit hard with the part of his mouth that connected- if he’d know exactly where to crunch down, I am sure my injury would have been much worse.
After I realised that my injury was only slight and mainly I was surprised and scared, I assured our neighbor that it was OK, admonished “Bad dog!” at the canine offender, and limped the few remaining steps home.
Maybe this unprovoked attack explains why so many Japanese seem afraid of dogs.
Posted by kuri at September 06, 2006 09:30 AMOh poor honey!
The thing with dogs is that you never know exactly how they will react to strangers. On the other hand it seems very weird for a dog like this to just attack you.
I would suspect that this dog may have some behavioural issues to do that.
Posted by: MJ on September 6, 2006 11:58 AMOh sweetie - I hope you are OK!! That is terrible that a dog just bit you while walking down the street. That dog mustn’t be well socialised at all.. (reminds me of a cat that I know too)
Posted by: T on September 6, 2006 03:23 PMI hope you heal quickly. And that the owner takes the attack seriously and doesnt just dismiss it. Bad dog!
Posted by: j-ster on September 6, 2006 07:55 PMYou should probably get rabies check just in case dawg. I would guess Hokenjo might be conducting that??
Posted by: Kimura on September 6, 2006 08:45 PMOw! Keep your eye on that bruise and take good care of yourself.
Bad dog! It’s always shocking when a dog lashes out for no apparent reason. Maybe something about the way your skirt moved? He was having a bad day? I still don’t like german shepards after being bitten by one - and that was a long time ago.
Posted by: Jenn on September 6, 2006 11:09 PMyeah, get that dog checked for rabies, definitely. If it’s positive, then you have to get vaccinated (which is annoying, as it has to be repeated once a week for a month or so, but otherwise painless). The chances of catching rabies even from an infected animal are slight, but it’s deadly, and untreatable once it broke out, so vaccinating pre-infection (but post-bite) seems worth the cost.
Posted by: der on September 7, 2006 08:40 PM