Homeless

Chapter Nine

Sunita’s parents rush through the emergency room doors at County General Hospital and spot Dr. Mac and Sunita at the reception desk. Mother throws her arms around Sunita and asks to see her hand. Sunita lifts her red, swollen hand, insisting it’s not that bad. Daddy looks at it and says it’s deep.

Daddy is a cardiologist and Mother is an orthopedist, both used to being around injured and sick people, so they’re usually calm during medical emergencies. Now they look pale and worried. Sunita guesses it feels different when the patient is your own kid.

Mother asks Dr. Mac how this happened. Sunita interrupts that it’s her own fault. She was warned to stay away from the wild cats and didn’t listen. Mother’s voice rises. Was it a cougar? Sunita shakes her head and says it was Tiger. Mother loudly confirms that Sunita was bitten by a tiger.

Dr. Mac clarifies that Tiger is a feral cat, a domestic cat raised without human contact that reverted to wildness. The clinic just started a program to vaccinate and spay a colony of ferals, and Tiger is one of a few now living there.

Sunita insists again that it’s her own fault, dreading that Mother might ban her from the clinic. Dr. Mac explains Sunita will need treatment for rabies exposure along with an antibiotic, and then the receptionist calls Sunita’s name. Dr. Mac says she’ll wait outside, and that Gary will be here soon, too, though Sunita isn’t sure why.

Sunita’s parents lead her down a hallway into a big curtained room. Everything is bright and clean, and she’s never been in an emergency room before. A nurse takes her blood pressure and temperature and charts her vitals, then gets out disinfectant soap, even though Dr. Gabe and Dr. Mac already cleaned the bite. Sunita’s hand has never been so clean.

The nurse washes the bite again anyway and lays gauze over it, leaving her hand hot and itchy. After he leaves, Mother strokes Sunita’s hair, blaming herself for letting Sunita work around dangerous animals at the clinic. Daddy calms her down, pointing out that children get broken bones and bumps all the time, or she’d be out of a job. Mother smiles a little and agrees, but insists this proves cats are dangerous and sneaky. Sunita knows she isn’t getting a cat anytime soon.

The doctor who checks in on them knows Sunita’s parents by first name, which puts everyone a little more at ease. He puts on fresh gloves, lifts the gauze, and studies the holes from Tiger’s teeth, remarking that she was truly chomped. Sunita opens and closes her fingers easily, and he sees no damage to nerves or bone. Cat jaws rarely break fingers the way dog bites can, and the puncture wounds won’t need stitches.

Outside, though, he’d talked with Dr. MacKenzie and Gary Snyder. Tiger was vaccinated only yesterday, so no one knows yet if he has rabies. Sunita will need a tetanus booster, since her last one was at age six, plus an antibiotic for the germs a deep cat bite carries.

Then there’s the rabies question itself. Dr. MacKenzie explains the vaccine may not have had time to take effect before the bite, so Tiger must be tested right away. Mother gasps, but the doctor notes that most rabies cases come from raccoons, skunks, and bats, so the odds of a bite like this being infected are small.

Sunita asks how they’ll test Tiger. The doctor hesitates, then says quietly that rabies can only be confirmed by examining brain tissue, which means putting the animal down. It would be quick and painless. Tears spring to Sunita’s eyes. She insists it’s her own fault for trying to pet him past his warning sign, and it would be wrong to kill him for it.

Daddy asks if she’d rather take the rabies shots than have Tiger put to sleep. She says she can’t let him die for her mistake. The doctor offers another option: keeping Tiger in quarantine for ten days. If he shows no symptoms, he’s clear. Either way, Sunita needs two shots tonight and one next week, and three more later if Tiger does test positive.

Sunita asks why not just wait out the ten days first. The doctor explains that would be too late, since starting the shots immediately is what prevents rabies from developing, and thousands of people get them safely every year. After going back and forth with her parents, who want Tiger tested now, Sunita wins. Tiger will get to live.

The doctor cleans her arm and gives the first shot, which hurts less than the bite did, then three more between both arms. She feels like a pincushion.

Back in the waiting room, Sunita tells Dr. Mac and Gary she chose the shots over having Tiger killed. Gary is already filling out the report, since every suspected rabies case must be followed up, and warns that reporters might call, since rabies stories make news even when nothing comes of them.

Mother presses her lips together, and Sunita knows this isn’t the moment to ask about adopting a stray cat. It might never be. Just then the automatic doors open, and an intense woman with a notebook strides in, saying Animal Control sent her about a rabies victim. She turns to Sunita: is this the girl attacked by a vicious, wild cat?