Hi! I’m Gerald by the way. Do you want to learn some part of me? Really? Okay okay, chill. Let’s travel back to my childhood. Are you ready? When I was a young boy, I had many friends here in our neighborhood – various friends actually that jump through species ahahaha. I have boys, girls, older boys, older girls, old people, cats, plants, dogs, chickens, dove, carabao, a dam. All sorts of things in my place, I considered them as my friends. You know, the bliss of innocence. I guess that helped me become an achiever when I was a kid. I study in the morning till afternoon in the weekdays, then spent the night watching in the television. My happy moments were always in the weekends especially the Saturday. In the Saturdays, my mother would let me play all day, then before the sun set, I got to go home or I will not be able to play the next time (she never told me as far as I can remember, but that was what I always believed in). One time, when I was, I guess, 10 or 11 years of age, and surely it was Saturday, I was playing with my friends, human friends. It was already in the afternoon, so I was making sure I got to play fully before my time ran out. Never did I expected that I myself will shorten my playtime. We played hide and seek. It was in my neighbor’s house. I got to hide quickly or I will be caught without even hiding, as the “taya” was counting down very fast. In my panic, I hid behind the bushes near my house. I was safe there. As the game proceeded, I decided to shift position, so that I could see where the Taya is, and plan when I would run to the base. I decided to transfer to the tree, again near our house. I sat there, and in a flash, something bit me on the neck. I covered my neck as a reflex after being bitten, then looked around. Alas! It was our dog that has bitten me. She has her babies with her. I ran to the water pump as my fear that my mother would scold and punish me built up. The Taya caught me, I ignored him/ her (I can’t remember who the Taya is). My heart raced and I could hear my every breath. I got no choice. I have to go to ask for help, for I don’t know what to do, nor what was going to happen. I slowly walked to my mom, while covering my wound. I slowly narrated what happened. She was startled, and frightened. The neck is close to the brain, and if the dog has rabies, I could die. We rushed and travelled to a “paratambal.” The paratambal saw me, checked me, treated me. He licked his finger and put it on my neck. I was disgusted internally, thinking that it might die not of rabies, but of infection ahahaha. Still, we proceeded and waited for the paratambal’s prognosis. I was free of rabies. I was happy. I was saved and so was our dog. No harm befall me, just a bite wound, and the mother dog was spared. I guessed she just did not recognize me as I ran. She was kind after all. And yes. That’s it. That’s my story of how my neck was bitten by our dog. Thanks.