A note on dogs

So every morning I would soak up the sunshine, the smell in the air, and the smiles on the faces of the people around me. Until one morning a group of dogs ran out from a drive way and circled me, bearing their teeth and hackles up. That shook me up a bit but I kept walking, looking dead ahead. A week or so later, the same dogs ran out and one little bugger bit me on the back of the leg. I walked to my usual pick up point very shaken up but holding it together, until I got in Buoy's car and burst into tears, poor Buoy! It wasn't a bad bite but left a nasty bruise and a scratch and one tooth managed to break the skin.

So then the rabies saga began. I went to a clinic who told me to go to the hospital, I went to the hospital where they told me I would need 5 rabies injections over the course of a month at a cost of 620 Thai Baht per shot. Hmmm.. that was over 3000THB (about £65). I asked him how long I had to decide, he said a few days.  So I got in the tuk tuk that had taken me to the hospital with a very sweet driver who was very concerned for me and spoke zero English but kept calling me 'Madam'. He was so sweet and gave me some cartons of iced green tea and shared his sweets with me on the way back to school. I have been in his tuk tuk since on the way back from the shops and it always amuses me how he puts his arm against mine and chuckles heartedly at the difference in our skin colour. He does the same thing every time I see him, bless him. Anyway, I ummed and arred about the rabies injections all weekend, but after some extensive research and finding out that if you start to show symptoms then it is too late, you will definitely start foaming at the mouth and die, I thought it better safe than sorry. From then on I would set off for work looking like a hobbit about to impart on a great adventure, back pack and stick in hand. I am so grateful for that big stick, a couple of times when I had to pass the dreaded dog pit and one would bark or run out at me, I would stand my ground and swipe at it with my magic stick and it would stop there and then and reconsider. Yeah, sticks and stones and all that.