Maybahay ng OFW
Wife of an Overseas Filipino Worker.
Attacked by a Dog
For the past days if you will notice, I was active here in my blog because I was disappointed. Disappointed because my youngest daughter was attacked by a dog while walking on the street with her grandmother.
It’s seldom that my daughter goes out for a walk with either me or my mother. My daughter asked my mom if she could go with her for a walk. I prepared some spring rolls and I thought those were quite many for us so I told my mom to bring some for the security guards. When they were about to go home, there was a dog who got out of their house and attacked my daughter. My mom was so nervous and barely can’t speak because of what happened. She tried to protect my daughter, but the dog was fast. A young lady was trying to pull the dog but she was also scared, according to my mom.
It happened last Wednesday afternoon. The night of Wednesday, I immediately sent a message to my daughter’s pediatrician because there was a scratch on her foot. I then, went to the owner of the dog. I asked if the dog has an anti-rabies vaccine, and the owner said all his dogs vaccination are updated. I was quite okay when I heard that but the pediatrician told me that though it was only a scratch, I still need to bring my daughter to Animal Bite Center or government’s health center for anti-rabies vaccine. I knew that there will be a lot of vaccines for that. It would be traumatic for my daughter.
I was hesitant to bring my daughter because I learned also that Covid patients come to the government health centers. I am not comfortable bringing my daughter outside. She is not vaccinated.
Come Friday, I saw this two wounds on my daughter’s right leg (scratch is on the right foot). I suspected that these are from a dog bite. I was thinking of that because I was bitten by a dog before. I asked my daughter and she told me that, it was from the dog. Because of this, I immediately searched for a clinic where they do home service for vaccination. Thank God and I found one.
For two days I was not able to sleep well because of what I learnt about rabies. I will not discuss it here because I am not an expert on that but I did some research and it is really frightening. I cannot be complacent about it. I need to do something immediately.
So today, the nurse who will do the vaccination arrived. My youngest daughter is really brave, in fact, she did not cry when the dog bit her. She shouted because her headband fell. On her periodic vaccination on her pediatrician, there was no glimpse of fear on her. However today was different, she had 5 shots for the bite and the scratch. The first three was smooth, but the last two became a struggle. I felt so sorry that my daughter had to experience that. I literally boiled in anger to the owner of the dog.
I cannot end this day without confronting the owner. I know my rights because it is a law here in the Philippines to cage their dog or let it stay inside their premises. If not there will be a lot of penalties. Oh my, I had to discuss to the owner how fatal rabies is. He was not old. He is even an officer of the home owners association here in our subdivision. Thankfully, he was calm because if he will resist and say something that would fuel my anger, I don’t know what I could say to him. He paid me with half of what we paid for the vaccination.
I ordered a nice doll house for my daughter as a reward on her braveness. It was not her fault. I still thankful because nothing bad happened to her. It was little scratch but there was a bite.
Well, this is what a mother could do for her children. I could be as calm as a sheep but if something would happen to my daughters, oh no, I don’t know what beast I could be..
Maybahay ng OFW 