When the dog bites...

...this is what you get!No, I'm really not kidding. This past Friday Jack was bit by a dog. Jack and I went with my parents along with Brian, Kym, Addie Grace, and Sawyer to Verona, MO for a McDonald family reunion. I left on Thursday with my parents and we stopped at a hotel about 2 hours away from Verona that night. Friday morning we got up and drove the rest of the way to my Uncle Rick's house. He has a new house on quite a bit of land in the middle of nowhere! So, we had just arrived and Rick started giving us the tour when we ended up in the backyard. Jack immediately saw the doggies in the backyard or as he calls them, "a-roo-roo-roo." We first went over to Oreo who was very friendly. So friendly that she used the bathroom on herself in excitement to meet us. Then, we wandered over to Britches to pet her. Jack was being so gentle and I was so proud of him. Then, all of the sudden before I could even think...Britches jumped up and bit Jack in the face. As you can see, it was very close to the eye. But, thankfully I was right there and pulled him away and kicked the dog before it turned into an all out dog attack. Jack's bruise on his chest is pretty big from where I grabbed him to get him away. We got him cleaned up and I called our pediatrician and they wanted us to go see someone there. (Why do these things always happen when you are out of town?) So, we went to the hometown medical clinic where Rick goes and had a very nice nurse practitioner look at Jack. She prescribed an antibiotic and made sure there was no abrasion in the eye. He didn't need any stitches either. The only concern then was about Rabies. I have learned more about Rabies in the past few days then I ever really cared to know. My Uncle Rick decided that he didn't need a dog that bites, so you can just use your imagination about what happened in the few minutes after the incident. Now...as we saw the doctor...we learned that is the LAST thing you want to do to a dog that bites. Policy is to quarantine the dog for 10 days to watch for any evidence of Rabies. Well, if the dog is no longer around...you can't do that. So, there is no way of knowing if the dog was rabid but most likely she wasn't because she didn't just randomly come into the yard and attack Jack. She was calm and a little bit provoked by having a kid pet her (she wasn't too used to having babies around).

Today we were on the phone with the vet who gave Britches her last Rabies shot to find out the exact date of the shot to make sure she had been properly vaccinated. The shot WAS within the past 3 years and it WAS a 3 year vaccine. If it hadn't been in the right time frame, Jack would have had to go through a big series of 4 or 5 shots for Rabies. Thankfully, he doesn't have to do that.

We're counting our blessings for many things: 1) the injury wasn't IN the eye, 2) I was right there and able to get Jack away before anything more serious happened, 3) today you can barely even tell he was bit, 4) we don't have to have rabies shots, 5) Jack is still not afraid of dogs!

As soon as we got back from the doctor's office, Jack was back wanting to go pet Oreo (the other dog). However, I didn't let him for the rest of the weekend. Last night when we got home he was happy to see our doggie, Murphy.This picture was just a few hours after the incident, and the injury was already looking so much better. He had some swelling around his eye and face but it was all gone by Saturday morning.

I'll try to post more about the actual reunion and trip tomorrow!