My heart broke a little more on Thursday, when I got a text from The Pony before noon. I'd been dreading it. Every time my phone buzzed, I had a feeling it was something bad about The Pony. I don't feel like that every day, but since I had talked to The Pony at 6:00 a.m., I felt that way on Thursday. With each check of the phone I was relieved that it was someone else. Yet the next buzz would put me in a panic again. Finally, the shoe dropped.
"Well. Guess what happened again."
I got a brief glimpse of the picture before I put my glasses on. My mind kept assuring itself that The Pony had merely fallen and skinned a knee. My mind was a dirty dirty liar. When I looked at the picture, I felt a wave of heat and weakness flood my body. I guess it was adrenaline.
"NOOOOOO!"
"I should probably report it but I don't want to deal with that again and I've already got the antibiotic ointment since the other isn't even healed yet."
"Rabies info?"
"Guy said they're vaccinated. Good enough for me. Little yappy thing that jumped up. Because some people with boxes on their porch just can't wait until I'm outside the fence to get their mail."
"Well. Small chance of a house dog having rabies, anyway. That's gonna bruise."
"Just don't know how much longer I can deal with this."
"At least you've had a tetanus shot, and know the treatment protocol. I don't have a solution."
"Not any good solutions, yeah."
"Maybe bid on another route?"
"Next one coming open is worse. It has the druggy part by the produce distributor being sued for not paying the non-citizens enough, plus the Nazi tattoo shop."
"Forget THAT!"
Just before 5:00, The Pony sent another picture:
"Update after bandaging."
"Dang, that bruised fast! You can see the other teeth pressure points."
"It hurts. I think this one was, like, a French bulldog."
"They can't breathe right! And can't have pups without a C-section. Maybe biting is their forte." [Let the record show that the sole source of my knowledge is what I've seen on The Incredible Dr. Pol.]
"I guess. I don't know what else can go wrong this month!"
Around 8:00, The Pony sent me a bedtime picture. Shows off his mailman's tan, too!
"Not even 12 hours yet. I'm just gonna rest and hopefully wake up in time to test how stiff the leg is as the bruise keeps developing. We'll see how it goes."
Poor, poor, Pony! It's not the dogs' fault. They are just doing what dogs do. Protecting their people because somebody is in the yard or on the porch. It's the owners who deserve the blame, for putting the dog and the mailman in that situation.
The Pony DID report the incident to his manager right after it happened. The Universe owes The Pony an apology. This is two bites in two weeks.