Kate Hawkesby: I was a victim of a dog attack, and learned plenty from it

So I had quite the day yesterday. And here's the thing, I wish I was one of those people who knew how to react in the moment.  I always think of stuff I should have said or done, after that fact. Yesterday I had a very stark example of that. I got bitten by a dog. Now I adore dogs, I’ve never been bitten by one, I love them, I grew up with them, I’ve owned them myself, they’re the greatest companions in the world, I think they’re adorable. But not all of them are. Some are downright vicious, and dangerous, and I put that down to the owner and their lack of control, not the dog. So I was walking my dog yesterday morning, and we see a man with his dog walking towards us, and his dog is pulling on the lead looking excited to see another dog and as we get closer, the polite thing all dog walkers do, is stop and let the dogs have a little sniff of each other. But as we got closer to this dog, it suddenly very aggressively lunged forward of its owner, jumped up and bit me – hard – on my thigh. I felt its teeth pierce through my tights and into my skin, it was incredibly painful, I couldn’t believe it had happened; I was in shock - and a lot of pain. I panicked that this dog was crazy and may attack my dog so I was trying to protect her and pick her up, whilst also try to see what sort of bite I had. I could feel a welt - I knew it was bleeding and the throbbing was so sore I knew I had to get my tights off and check the bite. I could feel the dog's teeth had gone through my tights, I was just so taken aback. The dog's owner, for his part, muttered, 'sorry', 'sorry', awkwardly, as though this dog biting was common practice, and he walked away. And this is where my shock got the better of me. I let him go. I didn't think or act quickly enough in the moment to grab his details and stop him. Too late, he was gone. I went looking for him, he had vanished. I was increasingly worried about whether this dog would attack someone else, I was worried it may bite a child, given it was able to jump so high to bite the top of my thigh, that could easily have been a child's face. I also knew I needed to find the owner once I saw the bite, replete with his dog's teeth marks in my thigh, because I knew it would need medical attention. I googled dog bites and saw you need to wash the wound, then add antibacterial cream, but the risk of infection is quite high and if the bite has pierced the skin you need to call a doctor. So I called the nurse and she said – dog bites are more common than you think, they deal with them a lot these days. Who knew?! I was sad to hear that. She said I would definitely need to come in and see the doctor for antibiotics as a preventative measure, and get a tetanus injection. So this dog bite has caused me pain, disrupted my day, inconvenienced me, and now it’s costing me to see a doctor and go on antibiotics, and have a tetanus shot. So I was now really annoyed that I hadn't acted fast enough and got the owner’s number and details, but shock had prevented me from doing any of that. Which the doctor said is very common actually for people in dog bite situations. But she did say it's very important to find the dog and its owner. So I just want to know, if you’ve been bitten by a dog, what did you do immediately in that moment? Because take it from me, standing there in shock like I did, is not enough.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.