Man's Best Friend?

I don't like dogs. I primarily attribute my disdain for canines to having been bitten a few too many times in my formative years, which has made me skittish around them ever since. To be honest, though, I've just never understood the allure of cleaning up the poop and drool of something that won't return the favor when I'm old and grey. Suffice to say, we currently live in a pet-free zone and while I will probably eventually submit to Allen's desire to get a cat, I'm pretty resolute about the whole puppy thing.

However, many of the people that Owen loves and who love him are dog people. As a result, Owen has spent a fair amount of time in close proximity to various breeds of varying ages in his short life. I've actually thought this was a good thing since I'd like our son to be comfortable among animals and not inherit his mother's nervousness around them. So while I may not have actively encouraged his interaction with dogs, I've been pretty amenable to it.

But my willingness to facilitate Owen's play-dates with man's best friend suffered a serious set back this week when we discovered that one of these beasts has infected our son with a fungus.

We noticed Owen had a sore on his temple a couple of weeks ago, but assumed it was either some form of baby acne that he'd scratched, or possibly a slight case of rug burn resulting from his recent forays into rolling over. Despite my diligent application of various ointments though, it kept getting bigger and so yesterday I finally had the doctor check it out. Her diagnosis: ringworm.

Since he picked it up before he started daycare and he hasn't spent any time in dirt, we're pretty sure he got it from one of the many dogs that have sniffed, licked or just been around him the past month or so. I'm not sure what all the repercussions of this latest incident will be, but please understand if I'm a little more nervous when Owen is around dogs now, and no matter how hard he may beg, Owen is never getting a puppy for Christmas.

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Update!

For two and a half weeks, we dutifully applied anti-fungal cream to Owen’s temple, only to find that not only had this ringworm not abated, but he’d developed a bad rash on his torso. Allen took him back to the doctor’s office where lo and behold we find out that the reason Owen’s ringworm wasn’t clearing up was because he never had ringworm: instead he has eczema with a strange presentation. So to all of our dog-loving readers who I accused of infecting our baby boy, mea culpa.