Dog Bites

When I was 14, my family had 2 German Shepherds and a Pitbull. One day one of the Shepherds and the Pitbull got into a scrap over some food. This was not uncommon (and the dogs were not violent towards people or other dogs, they just fought over food,) and it usually ended quickly. Anyway, this time, one of the dogs got her paw caught in the collar of the other dog, so my dad ran out to separate them. In the midst of pulling them apart, he was bit on the ankle. It broke the skin but didn't bleed much, and when "Pepper" realized that she'd bit him, she immediately laid down and started to lick his ankle. A day or so later, my father came down with a major fever and extreme headache. He was like that for a couple days before my mom and I forced him to go to the hospital. A spinal tap was performed, and it turned out that he had meningitis and he slipped into a coma that lasted a month. As it turns out, some dogs can carry a certain type of bacteria (in their mouths) that doesn't effect them, but under the right conditions, can be spread to humans. My father already had a compromised immune system, and the bacteria that would have normally had no ill effects had the chance to attack his system. It was a scarey situation, to say the least, especially considering my father had all of his vaccinations up to date and still, a simple dog bite almost killed him. (Just a side note-Pepper was NOT "destroyed" as the medical professionals suggested, but we had to deal with a lot of "red tape" to achieve that.)