My wife is an avid follower of astrological predictions. The other day, she was listening to a TV programme on which a foreteller was narrating the after effects of the movement of the planet Jupiter. When I set out for my walk, she said, “This year will be better for you than the previous one, because Jupiter is moving to the 11th house in your horoscope.” I smiled smugly and walked with a spring in my step. Who wouldn’t if told of better times ahead?
As I was returning home, a gate of a house opened and out came darting a barking dog. It had taken a dislike of me and charged at me ferociously. I tried to shoo it off.
A couple of pedestrians stood at a distance and advised me to remain still. I believed in the adage that barking dogs do not bite. But the dog was not aware of it. In no time, it sank its teeth into my shin. After it had drawn blood and was poised for another lunge at my limb, the owner came from his house and restrained the dog with a chain. When I bent down and lifted my pantleg to see the damage, the owner asked me, “Did he touch you?” I replied, “He bit me and blood is oozing out.” The owner apologised for the misbehaviour of his dog and said, “Don’t worry. The dog has been administered an anti-rabies vaccine.” As if that would alleviate my pain!
I went home and cleaned the wound and lacerations. My wife insisted that we see a doctor immediately. And so I went. He flashed a torchlight on the bite marks and said, “It is a bleeding wound. This is a category III bite. We should treat it immediately.” I told him that the owner of the dog assured me that the dog was vaccinated. The doctor demurred. “We can’t go by his word and risk a rabies attack, which could be fatal. It is better to play safe.”
He administered a rabies monoclonal antibody injection close to the bite wound on my leg, a tetanus injection on my left hand and a rabies vaccine shot on my right arm. He advised me to come back for four more rabies vaccine shots on the third, seventh, fourteenth and twenty-eighth day. Because all three were muscular injections administered on different limbs, I went home with aching limbs and told my wife, “The soothsayer on the TV was dead wrong.” The wife said, “Think positively. You will be completely safe from rabies virus when you finish the prescribed course of injections. Thanks to Jupiter’s influence.”
Email: mailpsubramanian@gmail.com