Sunday, March 23, 2008

Five Creatures that have Bitten Me

1) When I was living in Italy, I had riding lessons to improve my skills and one day a horse which was riderless felt pangs of jealousy towards the horse I was riding, feeling left out, and went to take a nasty bite of his rump but misjudged and took a mouthful of my thigh instead. And I do mean the whole thigh inside his mouth. He clamped down and dragged backwards with his teeth. My leg was not a pretty sight afterwards and for days I had to crawl about because if I tried to stand, blood would rush into the injury and I would almost faint with the pain. Going to the toilet was excrutiating and I would have given anything for a hole in the ground. The whole upper leg area swelled up to double its size and turned every colour of the rainbow. I realized later that I should have gone to the hospital but was in too much pain to even think straight. I still to this day, twenty-five years later, have a lump on my thigh the size of a grapefruit.

2) Also while I was in Italy, I was bitten by a dog. Despite having been born and bred on a farm, it has been the one and only time this has happened. I love dogs and they generally love me. But this day, I was walking through someone's property with friends when I felt a sudden pain in my ankle. I looked down in shock and there was a dog running hell for leather in the other direction. A fly-by-nighter. Bite and run. Completely weird. It wasn't a serious bite but surprised the hell out of me for the sneakiness.

3) Yes, a vervet monkey. My uncle in Zambia had a pet monkey, Blossom. Tragically she has since died. Anyway, this monkey had been with my uncle since shortly after birth and was obsessively jealous of any female who came within five meters of him. As far as Blossom was concerned, he was her mate and in the wild every other female would be warned off. And that's what she did to me as soon as I stepped foot on their property in Zambia. I was walking around the garden with my aunt when what felt like a ton of bricks hit me from behind. She sank her teeth (fortunately her main fangs had been removed) into my upper arm and then ran off. Again a major swelling with brilliant colours. It hurt like hell, by the way. The rest of my stay there, I carried a big stick around and a tentative relationship of mutual respect developed. My uncle and aunt were devastated when she became sick and died. I shed a few tears myself.
4) When Dario was two years old, he bit me. (He's about 10 in this photo.) Accidentally, of course. I handed him a bite of sandwich and he chomped down with great energy - unfortunately right on my knuckle. The doctor said it was probably broken but there was no point in x-raying it because there's nothing they do with broken fingers anyway. We laugh about it now but it was a bit inconvenient at the time.
5) Ha! Fooled you! There is no fifth. But I still have a few years to live so I will keep you informed.

17 comments:

By Tina-Sue Ducross said...

Wow, that is a great list.
I've never been bitten by a monkey or horse (thankfully as I spent a lot of time around them during my youth)or a child. A little Scottish terrier bit me once, which was unpleasant~those little dogs can be quite nasty!
Hmm, I'm almost surprised you've never been bitten by a snake!

Suzanne said...

A snake? God forbid. We have no snakes in New Zealand, thank goodness but I do travel enough to have met a few but thankfully have not. Even in Africa, it was winter and most must have been sleeping because I never even saw any despite camping out most of the time.

Suzanne

Abas KS said...

Hi, Suzanne

How art thou?

I did not know horses could bite humans. There must be something we can do about it! I am not going near a horsee without it wearing a mouth guard in the future! It seems horrible about what happened to you. I doubt it left behind a nasty scar?


Abas
voyage.aimvotal.com

Suzanne said...

a.i. editor, I have only the lump left on my leg, no actual external scar. Not too sure about the muzzle and the horse was trying to bite the other horse not me. But worth a thought.

Suzanne

Bernita said...

I was bitten once by ...a mouse.

Abas KS said...

Hi, Suzanne

How's stuff?

A lump, huh. Gosh. By the way, you can call me Abas. a.i.editor is my working name. :-D I reckon the horse went into a biting frenzy much like a shark. It did not matter whether it was your thigh or a metal post, anyway, the horse would have bitten it. :-\ frenzie horsee..wow. it's new to me.

I got some posts about Egypt on my blog soon. I thought you might be interested to view them, since you're planning an Egypt trip & all. :-D I hope you like them.


Abas
voyage.aimvotal.com

Nature Nut /JJ Loch said...

Heavens, Suzanne. I hope you have a tetanus shot. The horse bite sounds beyond dreadful. Sorry you have a huge lump from it.

Long ago, I asked to use a friendly neighbor's truck for a quick run to the store and she said yes. But she forgot she had left her black lab in the vehicle. It was a hot day and the windows were rolled up. As soon as I opened the truck door, the black lab growled and sunk her teeth into my hand.

Afterward she became ill and almost died. Animal patrol came to check on her for three days. Of course, I believe it was Gypsy's stay in the hot truck that made her ill, but the neighbors all decided it was because she bit me.

Hugs, Nancy

Suzanne said...

A bite from a mouse, Bernita, would be a small but spooky wound. I don't think they are exactly hygienic creatures.

Suzanne

Suzanne said...

Abas, I'll look out for that info on Egypt. I'm reading a book at the moment about the Valley of the Kings - interesting reading.

Suzanne

Suzanne said...

I have had several tetanus shots throughout my life, Nancy with an extra booster before going to Africa.
I feel sorry for that black lab. How can people forget about a pet? If I haven't seen my cat for a while, I go looking for him because he does have a habit of climbing inside open cupboards and then getting himself locked in.

Suzanne

Nature Nut /JJ Loch said...

Suzanne, I'm glad I found the dog when I did. I know what you mean about searching for your pets. I have four cats to keep track of and sometimes holler my lungs out.

Now people in the states are ticketed if they have pets in their cars on too hot of days when they shop. That helps to keep pets out of the vehicles.

Hugs, Nancy/JJ

Suzanne said...

Nancy, I'm glad about the law in the States. We probably have a similar law because cruelty to animals is certainly punished and leaving an animal in a hot car would fall into that category.

Suzanne

raine said...

Bitten by a mouse? Ack! :-O

No snakes in NZ? I didn't know that!

Good Lord, woman, you've led an eventful life. Lots of fodder for stories!

Suzanne said...

Raine, we have no dangerous creatures in New Zealand apart from a spider that lives in the sand dunes and which is basically never seen. Although meeting a wild pig in the bush is not much fun and it pays to be a fast runner.

Suzanne

raine said...

No dangerous creatures at ALL? That's amazing. What's wrong with you people? Don't you know we were kicked out of the garden? :D

But it's ok. I see you've traveled far and wide to find a few, lol.

Suzanne said...

I'm sorry, Raine, but the Garden of Eden still exists, so come visit us.

Suzanne

Sandpiper (Lin) said...

WOW! You're a teeth magnet! :) Owie!! Interesting stories!