Little did I know this would become a reality one day. It was several months ago, but that's how far behind I am on this blog. This summer, we went to the house of an acquaintance whose twins were starting kindergarten at my kids' school. We wanted them to get to know each other, and to get to know each other better as moms too. The kids had a good time, although Kyran ended up in tears because he wasn't being included like he would have liked.
I decided it was time to go, and the other mom wanted to show me her new house (she was one of the many who lost their entire house in our flood in October 2015). There was an addition to the house where a porch used to be, so there was a little step down. Kyran missed the step and fell on their sleeping dog. He immediately started screaming. I thought he had twisted something or gotten a cramp, because he was holding his leg, but then he said the dog bit him. Sure enough, he had a tooth mark in his calf. She is a nurse, so she quickly scooped him up and started cleaning his wound.
He was pretty upset, so I was holding his hand and assuring him that he just startled the dog when I heard another loud scream on the other side of the house. I ran out to see what happened, and the same dog, two minutes later, had bitten Karyssa. The girls had been running through the house, and I assumed the dog thought Karyssa was chasing the little girl and was still spooked from Kyran falling on her. So she cleaned Karyssa up, apologizing profusely and letting me know that the only time the dog had ever bitten before was grown delivery men who stepped in the house. I assured her I wasn't mad, and that my kids would be ok.
I then emailed a mutual friend to ask her to pray for my kids to heal and for the other mom to not feel so bad. She emailed back to say that the same dog had bitten her 10-year-old son a year before. This time, she hadn't broken the skin, but had ripped his jeans, and he was still pretty traumatized.
Luckily, my kids don't seem traumatized by dogs (although Karyssa is shaky around little ones who jump on her), but I am a bit traumatized. Not only by the dogs, but by the idea that I could be invited to someone's house with my three young children, and not be given a warning that the dog was a biting dog. And then when she did bite my children, that I would be lied to. I felt like such a bad mom for allowing both of my children to be bit by the same dog, when it could have been completely avoided in the first place.
Kyran had to leave rehearsal early that night and his bite did end up getting infected. Thankfully, our doctor friend was able to take a look and get him a prescription quickly.
A cute picture of Gemma with the dog in the background. She really did seem sweet, if skittish, while we were there. I will always ask now, though.
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