Let me explain: I set off on a QUICK walk with puppy, aiming to get a few beers and some bottles of cleaning stuff for the project ahead. Five minutes later in a little corner shop an assistant trotted over to see if she could help me find what I was looking for (I was, at that point, doing the charades version of what is surely the universal sign for mopping the floors). Anyhoo, as soon as she's about a half a metre away, Puppy cheekily pops up to say hello on her leg (like, jumps up on her leg, all friendly, no aggro etc). Cue this girl SCREAMING like she's been stabbed or something. I'm like, 'what the?' Took me a few moments to realise she is screaming because of Puppy. And then it begins. A two to three hour drama of this girl carrying on like she's been bitten (she definitely HADN'T) and dragging me (and Puppy, looking all cute and confused) to first the dentist, then the pharmacy and finally the hospital across the road. I was shitty at first, and was like 'there's nothing there!', in my limited Chinese I tried to get this point across. Then I thought that maybe this girl was a bit of a nutbag and genuinely panicked (egged on by her manager who kept instructing us to go here and there, all the while she's LIMPING, yes, limping, from our Puppy's paw on her, through clothes....) So, I thought, ok, try to calm her down and appease this situation. So, went with her to the hospital and thought they'd take one look at her leg (where there was NOTHING there) and tell her 'mei wenti' (= no problem). Oh, how wrong I was. The doctors didn't even look at her leg! (Too busy or too lazy??) Told her to get into their shower there and scrub it with a special soap for TWENTY minutes straight, then she was to get two shots in her arms!! Wtf!? She has to come back next week and next month too. For no wound or scratch or anything??? Very confusing. Sensed a scam coming on, but had no phone, no money and no way of contacting Husband or the school to say 'wtf'?'. Did have an Australian bank card on me though, so after a few different bank attempts (with her limping in tow, as apparently I was to foot the bill yes?, hmmm....) found one that accepted my card and could withdraw the pricey amount needed for these UNNECESSARY and RANDOM shots she was getting. All the while, I am holding my dog in my arms as every time I put her down on the ground and she heads towards the crazy girl, she gets screamed at and is a bit confused, so thought it would be safer to carry her - very sore arms today hey, but at least I did get that strength training in after all.
Anyway, we went back this morning, me and my Husband this time, to introduce him and to say, hey, how is that leg of yours? Well, now it has a large bruise that looks very much like a fist or knuckles on it! Definitely not caused by a little puppy's paw jumping up to say hello. Hmm... Very suspicious now. We are heading back there in a couple of hours with a Chinese friend who can hopefully clear this up for us. We fear that she may be trying to scam us and say that our dog has bruised her (there is no way that our little dog could cause the bruise she has - we think that twenty minutes of unnecessary scrubbing in the hospital shower or her own fist could possibly be the culprit!) and may try to get yet more money out of us (we've already had to pay a fair bit for the shots that there was no need to get). Either this girls is jatz crackers and a few screws loose or we are being scammed. Will keep you posted! (Side note: this is very bizarre as we often comment re: how safe life is living here in China and how sad we'll be to leave this loving, little community.)
ps - no run today, have swapped it for tomorrow! I seem good at doing that hey. :)