Watching the dog

I was home alone and a little bored. It was a normal Saturday, like any other day. I got up early and had already tasted my first coffee. I didn't feel like having breakfast alone, but I made myself something nice anyway.  As soon as I finished breakfast, there was a knock on my door. I looked out the window and saw that it was my neighbor Pedro. Strange, so early in the morning, was all I thought when I opened the door.

My neighbor and I have a lot of trust in each other. We have a friendship of many years. And I know almost all of his family.

Whenever I want to go shopping in my car, I ask him to come with me. I give him the keys to my car so he can drive it. I don't like to drive. I don't like to be aware of the road, other vehicles, pedestrians, and even the dogs that always want to cross the road when they see me behind the wheel. I prefer to go relaxed, watching and enjoying the ride. And since my neighbor Pedro doesn't have a car, he also benefits from driving mine, because he takes advantage of it and does his shopping. Sometimes, or most of the time, we are accompanied by his wife and daughter. They are very fond of me and so am I.

When my neighbor Pedro came in and after offering me coffee he asked me if I wanted to go out with his family to his mother's house who was having her birthday and they were going to celebrate it with a beef and chicken stew, with their respective bottles of beer. I of course didn't expect him to repeat it. I immediately said yes, of course I wanted to go. It was a smart way for my neighbor to ask for the car so he could take his wife and daughter as well.

My neighbor's mother's house is like a big neighborhood, it is a very big private space, with many trees, around it they built studio apartments, they have 22 apartments, and 6 of Mrs. Rosalia's children live there. The rest of the apartments are rented. When you arrive at the site you have to get out of the car to open a big gate, and in the center of all the apartments, they have a big patio where they park the cars.

My neighbor Pedro drove to the house, opened the gate, and from a distance you could see the big pot on top of the woodstove to prepare the beef and chicken stew. All the daughters were chopping the vegetables and when they saw my car entering from afar they started waving with a beer in hand. The kids were all-around playing and jumping. It all looked very cheerful.

My neighbor got out first. I sit in the passenger seat and open the car door to get out. I had not yet closed the car door, when a big, white dog running towards me has bitten me on one leg. I felt the fangs as they pierced my skin. I screamed loudly and everyone froze and watched. The only one who ran towards me was my neighbor. I didn't want to move my leg because I thought that with the fangs stuck in my leg I could tear myself more. It was the neighbor who grabbed the dog by the neck and pulled the dog. The dog loosened up a bit, but before I could get him off me he bit me again. It all happened so fast that my neighbor's sisters and mother didn't believe the dog had bitten me. They thought the dog was just tugging at the hem of my pants. I had to lift up the side of my pants so they could see my bitten leg. In total I had 8 holes in my leg. The first 4 were deep, from the first bite, and the other 4 barely penetrated the skin, but were still bleeding. 

Now everybody was sorry for me and ran to give me assistance. My neighbor took me to an outpatient clinic. There, the doctor told me that I had to get the anti-rabies vaccine, but that they don't inject it at the clinic and that I would have to go to the main hospital in the city the following Monday to get it there. I asked the doctor if there was no problem to wait until Monday and she told me that there was no problem, that I had up to a week, but that it was better to go on Monday.  She recommended that I observe the dog and that we should keep an eye on it because if the dog had rabies we would have to put the dog down. That all the symptoms that the dog might have were for me to watch out for. A nurse cleaned me up and let me go. 

The neighbor was very sorry, he said that he would buy the medicines that were prescribed for me. And that he would drive me back to my house. I answered almost with a shout: "What, back to my house, you're crazy, and lose the sancocho (soup) and the beers. No thanks. The only thing to do now is to watch the dog as the doctor said. Remember what the doctor said, that I can have the same symptoms as the dog". 

 We went back to Mrs. Rosalia's house. There that day everyone treated me like a queen. Even the dog from far away, tied with a thick chain, looked at me as if he wanted to bite me again, but he was calm. We were all watching the dog.

That day I had the option of being sad, bitten, and back to my house or the option of having a good time, accompanied and celebrating, even though I was already bitten by the dog, I could not change that fact. But the rest I could. I chose the option of having a good time. I really enjoyed it.

The next day my neighbor Pedro called my cell phone. He had stayed that Sunday at his mom's. He called to ask how I was feeling, if I wasn't feeling weird. I told him I felt fine.   Sore in my leg but fine. He answered: neighbor, do you remember the doctor said we had to observe the dog. That whatever the dog felt, you could feel it. Well, we let him out today and he went to his girlfriend and.... now he's making love.... Hahaha... we both laughed out loud.

This story is already several years old, and we always remember it when we meet at Mrs. Rosalia's house, and we laugh a lot, especially because of what the doctor said, that we had to watch the dog.  

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