I Have a Good Excuse

I have a perfectly good excuse for posting so late today. And what a story it is.

See this place? Take a good look because you are going to want to avoid it.



It is the oldest hostel here on the island. They have really cleaned it up in recent years and I hear that it is a nice place to stay now. If you like dorm living and sharing a bathroom with strangers. They also have a pretty good restaurant here too. More for the people staying there than the general public. I've never eaten there so I don't know first hand.

They have a lovely location, set back from the water on the east side of downtown. The back of it is all sandy beach and they hold volleyball games there. They also have this after hours bar and dance floor. It can get very crowded late at night.



The bathrooms are located in the main building and it is a long walk through the sand to get to them. I was there with a group of friends last night and had to use the bathroom. No big deal. They also have two guard dogs that live back there and bark at everybody. One of them always comes charging up to you, hackles raised, teeth showing and barking like crazy. He does this to everybody. It is very intimidating but I have never seen or heard of him attacking anybody. Until last night. Here's a picture of him at the entrance to the hostel. The little road is where you walk to get to the bar behind.



So, on my way back from the bathroom I had to pass by where he was lying in the sand. He didn't even raise his head to look at me. I got about five feet past him when WHAM! I felt a sharp pain on my right calf. The damn dog had bitten me! He ripped a hole in my blue jeans too. I walked back to the bar and told everybody what had happened. The staff just had this DUH expression, like what do you want me to do about it. I pulled up my pants leg and there was blood running down my calf. The damn dog had actually broken the skin. They wouldn't even go try to find the dog or anything. I told them I would be back this morning.

First I went to my vet. I wanted to find out the procedure for getting the dog picked up and tested. Or at least find out if it has had all of its' shots. He wasn't there but his staff told me to go talk to the manager of PocNa. So I did.

I told them that one of their dogs bit me last night. They immediately said "Yes. That was Kimba. He is very aggressive sometimes." But they were just as calm and matter of fact as can be. I told them they had to catch the dog and take it to the vet so it could be tested. They said that the dog has all of its' shots and the records are with the other vet in town. They did not have any copies or proof of this. I told them that if they could not furnish proof, I would be going to the police and making an official report.

Off to the other vet's office. He was expecting me. They had called him. Except that he couldn't readily locate any papers for this dog! He said they were somewhere in his filing cabinet. Could I come back around 3 PM? That would give him time to find them. I repeated to him that the dog is too aggressive to be allowed around the public....especially now that he has bitten somebody. He agreed but said there is nothing he can do about that.

So here I sit. Two hours away from getting proof that I am not going to have to endure rabies shots. But there is a pile of questions too. Like, do I report this dog to the police anyway? (animal attacks, unlike break ins, are taken very seriously here and acted upon immediately) Do I pursue getting the dog independently tested? (I am not too sure that the papers I will be shown will be authentic and not just made up today) Should I go to the doctor? The bite did pierce the skin but it looks ok today. Not sure what, if anything, a doctor could do at this point.

I am really stressing out over this. I hope it all turns out ok. One thing for sure, I will NOT ever go back to that bar and I would encourage all of you to stay away from it too.

UPDATE: I went back to the vet's office at 3 PM. He showed me the official rabies certificate and I believe it. It is exactly the kind I got from my vet when Simon had his rabies shots. He also dug through his back receipts and found the receipt for all the rest of the work this dog had done on Jan 3 of this year. (glad he waited a month to bite me!) Everything seems in order. Unless my leg looks like it is getting infected or something, I am just going to leave it alone now. I would dearly like to see this aggressive dog destroyed but that is not going to happen.