Dog bite

When I was in primary school -- although I can't remember how old I was --  I was bitten by a dog. A big dog. As fate would have it, it was an Alsatian, one of the biggest dogs I had come across. Of course when I was small, all big animals looked extra big.

What happened was that it was almost the eve of a Chinese New Year. Maybe it was two or three days before the festival. My family was still staying in Seang Tek Road and my mother had baked some cakes. It was my job to go distributing them to friends and I was particularly looking forward to go drop a cake with a family that was staying in Lorong Seratus Tahun, primarily because the trip would take me past a wooden bungalow that once housed a maternity home. The maternity home where I was born.

So there I was, walking down the road with the cake and then turning right into Selangor Road before making a left turn into this Lorong Seratus Tahun. Pretty soon I had arrived at this double storey house. I opened the gate and rang the door bell.

Someone opened the door but before I could even say anything, this mean beast suddenly rushed out from inside the house, all barking and aggressive, and jumped up at me. It tried to sink its teeth into my neck. Going for the jugular. My jugular. Even at a young age with terror in my eyes, I turned my body instinctively. Instead of my neck, the dog's jaw snapped on my upper left arm. And as quickly as it had bitten me, it ran away into the house.

I was shocked. This family was shocked. It was the worst feeling. Nobody from my family was around. Events became blurry after this but I do recall being rushed to the General Hospital immediately where two stitches were put into my arm and a tetanus jab followed. And then I was taken home. By then, my family had been informed too and they were waiting for me to come back.

For years, I sported that scar on my arm and proudly showed it off to anyone at school whenever there was a Physical Education class or a need to take off our shirts. The scar has faded quite a lot but can still be made out. What a Chinese New Year present indeed.