Once bitten, Twice shy

No we are not speaking of love. I refer to a dog bite. Not our dogs. Let me start this again. Samantha is okay today, mostly pinched, scraped, and does have a shallow, small puncture wound. I was dropping her off at at Marie's house last night. Samantha opened the front door and Bella leaped out and bit her. Poor Samantha. It is about two inches square and looks all black and blue. Thankfully Bella is all up to date with her shots, so there is no chance of rabies. I took Sam over to Dr. Pangburn for him to take a look. He read up on the most recent literature and said for now, lets treat it with warm soapy water and bacitracin. Dog bites are very unlikely to fester, so she should get away with no antibiotics. She got home, had a bath, we wrapped it up, and she fell right asleep. She wanted to go right back to Marie's house where she had just been bitten! She insisted on calling Marie while we were in the doctors office to reassure Marie that it wasn't Marie's fault. I talked to Marie this morning and she said she was up most of the night worrying about her mother who was hospitalized last night for complications from the chemotherapy and about Samantha. Marie should not have let Sam open the door, but she was distracted by talking to me and it was an accident. Bella is not a mad, bad dog. It was a combination of bad timing, fear of thunderstorm and overactive guarding instincts.

Samantha is so brave, compassionate and thoughtful. I am so impressed with her kindness to Marie and her bravery going to the doctor. She is a remarkable young woman.