When I was in fourth grade, or perhaps younger, I had a dog which caught rabies.
My parents were away and my siblings and I were playing in the yard with our dogs. I was about to put my hand on Brownie, but she bared her fangs and almost caught one of my fingers. I thought she was joking around. I’ve never seen her this mad. I tried again, and this time she bit my forefinger. Just a small scratch, nothing serious.
It was only then that I realized something was wrong with her. She was salivating heavily and was cooped up in a corner. I washed my finger and stayed out of her way for the rest of the afternoon. When my parents arrived, we told them what happened. One look at Brownie and my mom grabbed my hand and dragged me to the faucet. She squeezed my forefinger and re-opened my wound. She squeezed and squeezed and squeezed, ignoring my cries of pain.
The next day, my mom and I went to the hospital. I can’t remember it clearly but an image of Brownie’s decapitated head in a cooler comes into mind. They had to test her brain cells to confirm that it was rabies. The results were positive and I could remember my mom and I jumping from one hospital to the next because the prior one didn’t have the vaccine.
We finally found it in a small clinic. I remember the nurse plunging this long thick needle into my forefinger. I could actually feel it penetrate my finger’s metacarpal.
My finger was a big swollen hotdog for the rest of the week.
I am safe. But my dog is dead.







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