Have you ever lost a loved one to an animal? I used to think that domesticated animals were harmless, but it seems like maybe I was wrong all along. The feeling of losing my brother was so devastating. At first, I wanted to avoid writing this prompt, but on second thought, I decided to share my experience with this animal and how I lost my younger brother, which is why I am submitting my entry so late. I have tried so hard to forget this incident, but it's just so difficult to forget even after it's been years. Of course, since April 10th, 2005, I have hated dogs, including puppies, with everything in me. You wouldn't blame me, would you?
Animals are God's creatures that can be so loving sometimes and so dangerous at other times. While reading from Bruno about his experience with a scary animal, he mentioned that...
When animals get infected with rabies, they become extremely aggressive. Dogs, rats, what have you? And whoever they bite will also be infected, and that’s just how dangerous it is.
This is so true, but the whole thing kept me wondering why my brother couldn't make it, even after we rushed him to the hospital for an anti-rabies injection and other necessary treatment.
On that faithful Saturday morning, my younger brother was seated outside, just in front of our living room, playing on his own. Suddenly, a very whitish dog, so big and fresh, rushed in through our gate, followed through the backyard, met my brother seated there, targeted his upper lips, gave him a deep bite, turned back, and ran away. My mom started screaming because she saw the dog from her kitchen. I was coming in to the house from outside, and immediately, I saw the dog running away from the gate so fast that within a second, it looked as if it had vanished. I was highly terrified. I even ran back from where I was coming from; however, I couldn't say which route it followed.
The screaming from my mom attracted the neighbors, and most people who came were suggesting one native treatment or the other. But then, my mother didn't hesitate to pack her loads immediately, and we rushed straight to the hospital. My brother was attended to very well at the emergency unit in the hospital. Both the anti-rabies injections and other treatments were administered to him almost immediately. The doctor admitted him and said we would remain in the hospital for 9 days to complete the injection.
My brother was responding to treatment on day 1, day 2, and after taking the injections on day 3, he started acting up. The doctor was confused and wrote a transfer letter for us to go to the teaching hospital. We left and began another journey to the teaching hospital to see another doctor over there. On our way there, my younger brother gave up! He died 🥲 just like that; we couldn't even reach our destination; we lost him!.
It was so devastating to every member of my family and to our community at large. After his burial, our community leader banned every family from owning a dog. Youths were moving from house to house with Cutlass in search of anyone still having dogs under their custody, and anyone they found, they killed immediately. All those actions didn't bring back my brother till date; we lost him , and we have faced the reality that he is gone forever because of a dog bite.
I wouldn't know what we should have done that we didn't',do but I hate dogs— all kinds of dogs since that day till date!
Since my last ugly encounter with that scary dog, I do not visit anyone without first finding out if they have a dog or not. I wouldn't know the one who is friendly or not, but anything to keep safe and live!
Images two was taken from canva
Thanks for reading through