Two weeks ago, I was visiting a Chinese family celebrating the Lunar New Year and while I was taking their picture, their four little dogs like this one went crazy and three of them bit me. It all happened in 10 to 15 seconds.
The family assured me the dogs had their shots but when I got the papers, they just said the dogs were “registered” and mentioned nothing about being vaccinated. I went to a hospital where I knew they would speak English and the doctor left no doubt that I would need five rabies shots and a tetanus booster. I’ve had three of the five rabies shots so far.
In the hospital I was aware of only the two bites shown in the picture farther up but when I got home I found a third one, higher up on my thigh. You can see the bandage under the bottom of my short pants while I was burning palms for Ash Wednesday.
The whole episode was more an inconvenience than a big problem. And an unnecessary expense–$245–although that is probably much cheaper than the six shots and wound treatment would have cost in the United States.