BITE

CHAPTER 42

BITE

Early 1980s

It was a Wednesday.

A normal midweek workday.

I finished my morning shift in Ofrex engineering at 18:00, I should have finished work at 14:00, but I needed to work on an extra four hours as there was a problem with one of the transporter rectifiers in the plating shop, and there was no other tech cover for the afternoon shift, so I stayed on until it was fixed.

So I arrived home at around 18:15, I only lived 3-4 miles from work, so it didn’t take long to get home.

( Photo 1 ) . Ffella with my Yamaha RD 350 in 1978.

The house was in darkness, I let myself in like I normally would, my mother was not there, she was visiting my Grandmother and Bampi down in Waun Bant, a little further down the valley.

My dog called ( FFELLA ) was flat out, sleeping stretched out on the settee in the living room.

Ffella was a mongrel, possibly a cross between a Labrador and some type of terrier, this is a wild guess on my part, he could have been a product of a long line of mongrels, you decide when you see his photo.

He was completely black all over except for a white beard and a single small spot in the center of his chest, he was around the same size as a Welsh Corgi.

At the time of this story, we didn’t know his true age, but he was getting on in years, my guess, well over ten years old.

My mother found him wandering the streets of the valley, it was very common back then to dump puppies if they were not wanted, of course this practice has stopped nowa days, but back then it was normal, most dogs were used for hunting or as family pets, Ffella was a bit of both, ( most working dogs are kept outside ) the family dog was allowed to wander around the valley freely and would find their own way home when they were ready or hungry, nobody walked a dog back then, dog leads were very rarely used, nobody thought twice about seeing a dog wander around without its owner or even wearing a coller.

When my mother found Ffella he was a puppy, cold, hungry and frightened, he looked very thin and half starved.

She took him in with the intention of phoning up the dog warden, so he could be re-homed, but after she feed him, and he lay there sleeping in front of the fire, she took a liking to him and decided to keep him.

That was many years ago, he was old now with a grey goatee beard under his chin, just like an old biker, his joints were stiff, and he most likely had a touch of arthritis, he had all the ailments that comes on with age, like a lot of people say, old age does not come on, on its own.

I know how he feels now.

Ffella was very protective, while he was in my house, the only people that he would allow to go anywhere near him was myself and my mother, if my friends came up to visit, he would always be on alert.

He would growl and even snap out at them if they came to close to him, but saying all that he was very obedient and followed all commands when he was outside the home.

He never wore a collar around his neck mainly because we would hunt in the forest, and he could get caught in a branch and other sticky out bits.

Myself, Brian and Wobble would go hunting up into the mountains and into the uninhabited forest valley of the Garw Fachen, and Ffella would come with us.

( Photo 2 ) . The Garw Fachen, a valley that runs along side the Garw Valley, no-one has ever lived there, there never has been any buildings or any kind of occupation, except for Bronze Age man, 4,500 years ago and possibly some mining activity by Cistercian monks from Margam abbey around 1000 years ago.

The dog had a free run.

He never chased sheep, but we did have to be careful around sheep on the mountainside, not because of the dog, but the farmers, they would shoot a free running dog on sight, and we would also be in the farmers shotgun sights if we were spotted, they didn’t care who they shot at, I have lost count of the times that old farmer Chinco Phillips of Ty-Meinor farm took a shot at me with both barrels with his shotgun filled with salt when I was younger.

Sometimes on out travels in the forest we would come to a sheep fence, we would need to cross the fence by climbing over, there were never any gates except on the rough tracks that went over the mountains and normally when we came to a fence like this Ffella would crawl underneath the wire to get to the other side, he was too small to jump over.

On one of our hunting trips, we came across a fence which was secured into the ground, so Ffella could not sneak under it.

I had moved on in front and had climbed over the fence and wobble and the dog were behind me.

The only way for Ffella to get past the fence was to be carried over it, so wobble decided to take the risk and picked him up and put over the fence, and oddly enough he allowed him not only to touch him, but pick him up.

There were no growls or showing of teeth, wobble pick him up and drop down gently on the other side of the fence without any complaint form Ffella.

That was the only time, he allowed anyone else to go near him, let along touch him, but back in the house it was all growls and teeth once again.

( Photo 3 ) . Ffella catching up with us in the forested part of the Garw valley.

On this normal Wednesday, it was my turn to be on the wrong end of his aggression.

Normally Ffella was not allowed to be on the furniture, but has he became older, now and again my mother would let him sleep where he liked, especially when the weather was cold and wet, which is the norm in Wales, weather wise.

So, after I took my bike gear off, I intended to pick him up off the settee and put him down by the fire on his rug, I had done this many times before and I always lowered him gently down to the floor, I was aware the cold weather affected him, and he was showing signs of stiffness in his joints.

I learned over him and put both my extended arms around his whole body cradling him in my arms like you pick a baby up, I did this as gently as I could to carry him down onto the living room carpet and while I would normally do this I would normally say something like “dewch ymlaen, nid ydych chi i fod, i fod yma “ ( come on, you’re not supposed to be on here ).

All of Ffella`s commands were in welsh, my mother only spoke welsh to him, he always looked confused if anyone spoke any English to him.

As I touched him, I slid my hands under his body to take his full weight and I must have touched a sensitive spot because what happened next was a bit of shock to me.

Whatever I did, I must have hurt him badly because, he reacted by snapping at me.

This would not normally have been a problem, not that he had ever done this kind of thing to me in the past, to everyone else yes, to me never, so I was not expecting it.

The main problem was the position I was in, my face was very close to his head and when I attempted to pick him up and me being in the wrong place at the wrong time took the full brunt of his reaction.

My face was far to close to him as I tried to cradle him up in my arms almost touching his head.

He must have reacted to the pain in his joints and as quick as a flash, he turned his head and bite me in the full in the face, very aggressively.

He yelps in pain and growled at the same time, I still had him in my arms, so I quickly put him gently down onto the floor.

I looked at him as he lay there, he had his ears flat to his head and looked frightened, and the little shit was licking his lips at the same time, and then I felt the hot blood running down over my mouth and then after the initial shook of what just happened the pain kicked in.

I touched my lip to reassure myself that I was bleeding, I didn’t really need to do that, as I tasted the blood in my mouth, my mouth was filling up with blood very quickly.

So I went straight into the bathroom to check the damage to my face.

The blood was flowing down over all over my mouth and inside, my teeth were a bright red colour, the bottom of my face was already covered in blood.

I tried to wash the blood away from my face to get a better look at the damage, but the blood would not stop flowing and I could not make out how much damage the bite had done because of all the blood, the bathroom sink was covered in blood

I checked the damage using my tongue and fingers, Ffella had bitten right through my top lip and tore a large part of my lip away from my face.

The hole was so big I could push the tip of my tongue though the hole.

As I was checking out the damage, my mother came into the house.

I shouted “mam, Rydw i yn yr ystafell ymolchi, mae ffella jyst yn fy brathu “ ( mam, I’m in the bathroom, Ffella just bite me ).

My mother said “ Ffella wouldn’t do that, he only bites other people” ( Ni fyddai Ffella yn gwneud hynny, mae’n brathu pobl eraill yn unig ).

“ Well he has bitten me this time “ I said.

She said, " let me have a look ", she pulled my face around like has if she was inspecting a snow glob and said “ wooo that looks nasty, you will need stitches in that, you’d better go to Bridgend and have them to have look at it “.

I answered “ yes, I think I better had ”, I pulled her hand away, she was holding my face far to tight.

Then my mother went into the living room and said to the dog “ you alright Bach ( BOY ), you lie by the fire and keep warm “ in welsh of course.

My mother was in her own personnel little bubble, and she seemed happy there, who are my to judge things that happen to others through their lives, events that happen in peoples pasts shape their personality in later life, and nobody but the person that experienced these events will really know why they do things the way they do, and that is how my mother was, she did care, but she was very matter of fact about life, a kind of, if you have a problem deal with it, attitude.

That was how my mother dealt with all emergency’s, with complete indifference, no matter who or what it was, family or stranger, the reaction would be the same, at lest there was no panic and screaming to make the matters worse than they were.

The wound was more of a tear then simply a bite hole, and the blood would not stop pouring from the bite.

I already had a scar in near enough to the same place as the bite which I received a few years earlier by being kicked in the mouth during some altercation, it looked to me like the dog bite had reopened the old wound up as well as creating a new one.

I grabbed a small hand towel and pressed it over the wound in attempt to put pressure on to the tear to help to stem the blood flow.

The towel was soon saturated with blood, it was so heavy with blood it was dripping everywhere on to the horrible green synthetic wool carpet my mother had decided to have in the bathroom, there was blood all over it around the sink.

It did not take me long to decide to head the ten miles to the local A&E at Bridgend general hospital on Quarella road.

( Photo 4 ) . Bridgend general hospital.

( The hospital was demolished in the 1990s and the council built the princess of Wales hospital to replace it, a few miles outside of town at litchard, to serve the population of Bridgend town and the surrounding area of more than ten miles outside its town boundaries in a big circle to deal just under 40,000 people) there is now a small housing estate on the old hospital site).

So I wrapped a different clean hand towel around my face and then my scarf that I normally wore, which was my red and white welsh rugby scarf, I always wore during this time.

I then put my full face Red Baron helmet on instead of my open face helmet, I used the full face helmet to try and keep the towel tight and in place over my face.

It was late in the year, mid November, the night seemed extra dark and the roads were wet, which was normal for Wales.

It had been raining on and off all day.

I rode down the valley and headed down to Litchard Cross and then turned into Wild Mill, this route would take me straight to the hospital on Quarella road, taking this route I would avoid the center of Bridgend, I had a pretty clear run, there were not many cars out and about on the roads.

My Honda 550 miss-fired a little, but I had no intention of stopping to spray any W.D.40 over the plugs and leads, I did have a sense of emergency.

I was riding along and becoming a little alarmed by the amount of blood that was collecting in my mouth and I could feel the warm wetness of the blood running down the front of my chest inside my leather jacket, the towel was saturated with blood again, it was so wet with blood it could not absorb anymore, so gravity took the stream of blood on a new journey.

I needed to get to the A&E Department at the hospital as soon as I possibly could, I don’t know if it was my imagination, but the flow of blood trickling down my neck seemed to be increasing.

On the ride down I was trying to work out why my wound in my lip would not stop bleeding, I could not understand why I was bleeding so much, after all I had not cut an artery, if I had I would have been dead within minutes and I would not be writing this story of what happened on this night.

By the time I hit Litchard cross, I could feel my lip and the area around it throbbing with pain and the blood was still filling my mouth up.

Every now and again, I would need to swallow the blood that had accumulated in my mouth, I had no option, where else was it going to go. In no time I arrived at the hospital and pulled into the car park which was directly outside the A&E Department.

I was surprised to see only four cars parked up and no activity, there was not a soul to be seen, the area was very quite, I remember the car park was surrounded by trees and bushes which hid the car park lighting somewhat, casting shadows in all directions, I can't tell you what colour the cars were, but I can remember the models for some reason, there was a mark 1 ford escort, an old moggie 1000 estate with wooden bits on the windows ( Morris 1000 ), a Humber Scepter and a Citron of some kind.

I approached the entrance which had double aluminium doors with two large square glass panels in each door.

In front of me was a long corridor, there were a number of signs hanging down from the ceiling, set at different places along the corridor, with arrows pointing in the direction of what department was where, I followed the sign towards the A&E Department.

The corridor had a number of doors along its length and was completely deserted, the corridor was completely empty, there were no trolleys or beds or any kind of medical equipment, it was very quite, no noise of any kind coming from anywhere, except for the squeaking of my boots on the corridor floor, I was beginning to think I was in the wrong part of the hospital.

Nowa days in modern hospitals there are people everywhere, nurses, doctors, Para-medics and patients moving around everywhere with queues up to 12 hours in the A&E Dept just waiting to be triaged before they see a doctor.

How things have changed over the years.

( Photo 5 ) . Ffella on the side of the mountain with Carn mountain in the distance, it's not you eyes, the photo is a little out of focus.

At the end of the corridor it opened up into a large squarish room, in the middle of this room were a number of rows of loose chairs all in a line, the chairs had smooth hard plastic seats that were fixed to metal tubed frames, the seats were all in bright colours of red, blue, green etc.

They were all lined up in four rows facing the corridor, the same corridor I had just walked down, and on my right as I came out of the corridor, there was a small window set in the wall around four foot off the floor, the red painted sign above the widow declared this was the reception.

And behind this window in sitting in a green plastic upholstered chair was a mature lady in her late 50s, wearing wide bright blue reading glasses, her hair had a hint of blue and had very tight curls and was cut very much like a bob, not quite reaching her neck.

She was reading a Mills and Bloom romantic novel with a picture of a man sitting on a tall horse and a woman in a long 19th century type flowing red dress and this well-dressed lady was hanging onto the horse rider leg, trying to stop him riding away, it’s a trivial thing to remember, but it stuck in my memory for some reason.

The receptionist noticed I had come to the window, she looked up from her book and looked at me over her glasses and said “ yes, how can I help you “.

Before I answered, I looked around the room, there were only a few people waiting.

There was a middle-aged man sitting at the back of the room wearing a black workman’s donkey coat, like the ones miners and council workers used to wear, he was sitting on his own and another man who must have been the father of a child that sat next to him, the daughter of around seven years old had a makeshift bandage over her right wrist and nearby from them a few seats over was a boy of around 13-14 years holding a skate board over his lap, I could see he had taken a fall and had scraped a lot of skin off his right arm, his injury is what bikers call gravel rash, nothing to worry about there.

I looked back at the lady receptionist behind the window and removed my helmet carefully, I left my scarf on still covering my face not wanting to disturb the wound.

I said “ can I see a doctor please “.

She replied “ can you tell me the nature of the injury” in a very bored and non-interested tone, she must have said the same sentence a 1000 times before.

I answered “ I was bitten by a dog “.

She took my name and details without looking up at me and then said “ go find a seat over there” pointing at the row of chairs behind me “ and I will call your name when the doctor is ready to see you “.

I said “ thank you “ and started to remove my scarf from around my face and has I did this.

The receptionist looked up at me and I could see her eyes widen, and she said out load “ o fy duw “ ( oh my god ) and then continued in English “ stay there, I’ll get the nurse”.

What I did not realise at the time, was that my lip was still bleeding profusely and it had soaked into the towel and the scarf, and this was now dripping down the front of my jacket, it looked as if I had just tipped a bowl of tomato soup over the front of the jacket and this did not give a very good impression to someone who was not expecting to see so much blood.

The scarf and towel had channeled the blood all down my face and down my neck and it gave the impression that I had, had my throat cut.

The blood has spread all over the bottom half of my face and neck, and every time I spoke I had blood seeping out of my mouth, all my teeth were covered in bright red blood.

( imagine a messy vampire just after feeding off a victim ).

The receptionist dropped her book on to the small desk in front of her and rushed off to find a nurse.

As I waited for the nurse to appear out off nowhere, I turned around and faced the other would be patients waiting behind me in the large room.

As I did this, I could see the old guy at the far end of the room, his eyes opened wide and sat upright from his bored relaxed position that he had adopted, and the little girl gave out a scream and promptly buried her head in her fathers chest, sobbing her heart out, the young boy just stared at me and touched his scrapped arm, I thought I’m not the best looking guy around, but I can't look that bad.

There was something else I was unaware of, and that was the dog bite was much worse than I first thought.

My actual top lip was hanging down over the bottom lip and my top teeth could be seen above my top lip with my mouth closed, it must have looked similar to a zombie that had just had it’s face eaten off.

It hurt and the pain was getting worse and I knew it would not stop bleeding, but I did not realise that I looked like someone that had his face eaten off by a werewolf.

Well my mother did say it looked nasty.

I didn’t have to wait for long, a nurse walked up to me as if she was just off to make a pot of tea, she walked up to me in a very causal manner.

She looked at me, and said in a very calm unhurried way“ and what have you been up to “.

She didn’t give me time to answer, she promptly stood alongside me and then held my wrist and elbow using both her hands.

She was shorter than me, which makes a change, she was also a little portly and in her mid to late thirties.

She kept talking at me in the same relaxed tone.

“ How long ago did this happen “.

“ About an hour ago “ I said, spiting blood everywhere.

“ Do you need a wheelchair, your not feeling faint are you “

I said sarcastically “ I’ve been bitten by a dog on my face, I did not come in with a broken leg”.

And the nurse replied with a harder tone to her voice, but not too nasty just enough change of tone to let me know she was in charge, and she was not going to take no crap off me “ I will break your leg, if you don’t answer my questions, do you feel faint, you may not know it, but you look like you have lost some blood “.

I answered with no sarcasm this time “ no, I feel alright, and sorry, I’m in a little bit of pain, I just want to get this sorted “.

She replied “ that’s ok, I understand, walk with me this way, the doctor will see you straight away”.

She did not relax her grip on my wrist and elbow and lead me into a side room, in fact in a way, I think she was holding me up.

She guided me over to a chair and took my helmet off me and placed it down on a chair next to me, and In a stern voice she said “ sit there and don’t move, the doctor will be with you in a few moments “, she turned and as she walked away she added “ I mean it, don’t move or try to and stand up “.

I thought fuck, the nurse has turned into my mother.

So I sat there thinking about what all the fuss was about, after all it’s only a dog bite, hundreds of people get bitten by dogs every day.

The same nurse came back into the room and walked over to me and held my arm again and said “ this way Philip, the doctor is ready to see you now “, I stood up and walked with her into an adjoining room connected by a door in the same room I was waiting in, and entered the treatment room, the nurse was still holding onto my wrist and elbow.

In this room there was another nurse and a female doctor, they were both wearing plastic disposable pinny’s ( apron’s ).

The doctor introduced herself as Doctor Williams and the nurse as, Nurse Nerys.

The nurse that led me into the room, said “ the doctor will take care of you from here, don’t worry your in good hands”, and as she left she said “ behave, I’m watching you “ she smiled has she said this and put two fingers up to her eyes and then pointed them at me, I tried to smile, but my wound would not let me, it hurt too much.

The doctor instructed me to sit on a trolley type bed ( gurney ) that had a reusable blue heavy plastic cover over the top surface.

So I sat there with my legs dangling over the edge, then the doctor shone a thin pencil torch into my eyes and then across my face, and then she instructed the nurse to carefully unwrapped the scarf and towel from around my neck.

The doctor touched my lip with a fingertip, I said “ woohh “ and I pulled my head back.

She said “ don’t be wimp “.

I answered “ it’s not your lip is it, it hurts “.

She answered “ yes, it does look sore and how long have you had a lisp.

I said “ what lisp “.

I had unknowingly been sucking air though the hole in my lip, making a sound as if I had a speech impediment.

The doctor looked closer at my torn lip and said “ that’s quite a nasty bite you have there, we have to stop that bleeding somehow before we can tidy it up”.

She added “ do you know what dog it was, and have you informed the police “.

I answered “ yes and no “ .

She looked and waited for me to continue, I said “ that’s it, it all stops here”.

“ Ok it’s your choice, but you should tell someone or that dog may bite someone else”.

I said “ it’s sorted “.

“Alright let's move on “ she said.

I had no intention of telling anyone in authority, it was my dog, or they would have tried to have him put to sleep, and I was not going to let that happen.

The doctor then instructed Nerys the nurse to clean up all the blood around my face and neck.

The nurse gave me a tightly wrapped type of bandage swab and told me to hold it over my bite wound and put on as much pressure that I could stand on to the lip to help stem the blood flow while she cleaned up around the area of the wound.

The doctor disappeared out of the room for a little while, the nurse carried on cleaning up the blood from around my neck and the wound and then the doctor came back in carrying a stainless steel metal try with an array of small bottles, needles and swabs filling the tray up.

The doctor placed the tray down on to a mobile square cabinet and said “ right, have you had a tetanus shot in the last ten years”.

“ No, not sure, I don’t think so, I may have, umm no “ I said.

She said “ which one is it, yes or no “.

I replied “ no then “

“ Are you bothered with needles, she asked.

I answered “ no, I’m good with stuff like that “.

She said “ good, that makes it easier for all of us “, Then she said “ nurse, have you finished cleaning up“.

She answered “ yes, just about “.

The doctor examined my wound again and said “ ok slide off the trolley Philip and drop your jeans down, don’t worry we have seen it all before, I will have to give you the tetanus injection in your thigh “.

I said “ I have no problem with dropping my kegs in front of women “.

The doctor replied “ that doesn't surprise me “.

The nurse helped me down by holding my forearm and elbow again, they were still concerned I was going to faint.

With the tetanus injection done, I climbed back onto the trolley / bed.

The doc said “ ok lie down flat, facing up and try and get your head to over hang the bed a little, so your head is slightly tilted over the edge”.

So I did what I was instructed.

All I could see now was a bright light pointed directly at me form above.

While I was in this position, the nurse held my head steady with both her hands on both sides of my head and every now and again she would soak the blood up with a swab from the wound, the blood flow had slowed down a lot by now, but was still trickling out from the bite wound.

I was in that prone position for what seemed like an age.

The doc said “ are you sure you don’t have any issues with needles “.

I answered “ no, I’m fine with them ”.

“ It does look like I may have to use a few injections to numb the area around the wound”. She said this while she was leaning over the top of me and looking directly down on top of me from a sideways angle, it seemed very surreal at the time, it was like receiving instructions from a disembodied voice, the bright light from the lamp was masking everything around me.

When she started to use the needles, the doc did not just inject my face, but pushed the needles in very slowly, pushing the needle deep under my skin and pumping the anaesthetic into my face as she went along.

She did this six times on the outside of my face and two more inside my mouth.

When she put the fourth needle in my face, the doc pushed the needle in and the pointy end of the needle came out of my cheek as she pushed it along and the anaesthetic squirted into my left eye.

The doc said “ oops sorry, don’t worry your eye maybe a little blurry for a while, but it will be ok once the anesthetic wears off “.

I couldn’t answer, as my face had stopped working, I had no control over it anymore.

The doc spoke to the nurse and then left the room again.

Nerys, the nurse said “ that went well, are you ok, we have to wait for your face to go numb before the doc can stitch it up and make you look brand new again”.

I couldn’t answer, not even wink, so I gave her a thumbs up and just lay there, staring into the light.

The doc was correct my left eye was blurry, it was like looking though frosted glass, I was thinking that I hoped it would wear off before I rode home, so I could see where I was going.

After a little while the doc came back into the room with a different metal tray, this time there was thread needles, and surgical thread and a strangely shaped scissors, I know this because the nurse told me, I couldn’t see anything in the position I was in.

So when the doc was ready, the nurse and the doctor went through the same procedure as they had done before, the nurse holding my head steady and the doc sticking in more needles in my face, but this time she was sewing my lip up.

This again seemed to take forever, I had to close my eyes, because the doc moved the overhead lamp closer to my face and the light was almost blinding me.

While this was happening, I was listening to the nurse and the doc talking about another nurse and a male doctor.

The nurse said “ yes, and they have gone on a dirty weekend in Cornwall, I supposed it makes a change from going into a supply room, they think no-one can hear them”.

They both gave a little giggle to that remake.

The doc answered “ well they have to relax somehow “.

The nurse replied “ There will be no relaxing if her boyfriend finds out, she told him, she was going on a girly weekend with friends from work”.

The doc added “ well that’s partly true “.

They both giggled again.

This conversation went on all through the procedure.

Nerys the nurse was talking so much that the doc had to point out something to her while she was sewing me up.

“ If you don’t stop that blood going into his eye, he will be blind in that eye as well” .

The nurse had been doing her job of mopping up any blood that seeped out of the wound while the doc was busy with the sewing needles.

But she was concentrating more on the gossip than the procedure and a rivulet of blood was making it’s slow crawl to my left eye, the nurse caught it in time and the doc said “ let's finish, and we’ll chat later”.

And that is what they did, it was a pity really because their conversation was taking my mind off the surgery.

They finely finished, and at the end of the procedure, I had six injections on the outside of my cheek and lip and two on the inside of my mouth and then ended up with ten stitches on my lip and four more on the inside of my mouth.

The doc said “ ok Philip that’s done, sit down over there and the nurse will bring you some tea and something to eat and I’ll be back in a few minutes “.

So I sat there with a lukewarm mug of tea and a couple of macvities digestive biscuits.

I didn’t want them, the last thing I wanted to do was drink and eat, I still did not have full control of any part of my face.

But, the nurse told me to eat them, or they would not let me go home, the nurse said I needed to replace the blood and sugar I may have lost because of the bite.

I did what I was told, well some shape, drinking was impossible, a better description would be dribbling, I think I spilled most of the tea down the front of my jacket and the biscuits where everywhere, there were more biscuit crumbs on the floor then in my mouth.

They kept me there for more than half hour and the only advice I had of the doctor, was to go see my local G.P. the next day and ask for antibiotics and pain killers if I needed them, but no Aspirin tablets at any time and keep the wound clean.

The nurse that originally took me into the doctor came into the room, I never did find out her name, she looked at me directly in the face and said “ there you are, looking a lot better, doctor Williams said it's ok for you to go home now “.

I said thanks to everyone the best I could, I was having trouble talking because of the wound and the stitches”.

As I left the A&E department the short nurse said “ goodbye and don’t kiss any more dogs “.

This made me laugh, which hurt, I was ready to laugh again, but my faces wasn’t having any of it.

I had been in the hospital for hours, it was getting quite late in the evening now.

I rode home only using one eye and went straight to bed, I was very hungry, but could not eat anything, I didn’t sleep a wink, the anaesthetic had started to wear off and pain was my company for the night.

In the morning I went straight to the doc’s, the doctors' surgery was back then was behind the Squirrel pub near Pontycymmer square.

He had no hesitation in giving me the pills I required, I had to ask him for a sick note ( doctors paper ) for work, the doc at the hospital would not give me one and simply told me to have one off my doctor.

I picked up my medicine up from the chemist near the square in oxford street and from there, I then rode down the valley to work, I should have been in work at 05:15, I could not contact anyone because there was no-one there, I was always the first in the morning shift, no-one else came into work until 06:00, I always went into work early to switch the machines on so they could get up to temperature for the incoming morning shift, so they could start production immediately.

I rode into work and stayed outside my department, there was far too much grime and chemicals in there, I didn't want to get the wound infected.

So to keep safe I stuck my head around the door of the plate shop and called someone to come outside to me.

My manager came out and started to say something and I cut his ( where were you this morning rant ) in the bud.

I had already taken my helmet off and pulled my scarf down has he came out.

My lip and cheek had swollen up and it looked terrible, there were stitches sticking out in all directions and the skin was still red raw from the bite and the face surgery.

I looked like the elephant-man`s younger brother.

Because I was staff, I had a month off from work with full pay, which I was happy about, the downside was that I dribbled for more than a month and had to eat soup and other liquid type soft food.

One night some years later in 1983, Ffella came up to my bedroom and woke me up in the middle of the night by licking my face, he never slept in my room, he was always with my mother in the nighttime, he licked my face and stayed with me for only around five minutes, he curled up by my side and Cwtched into me and then after a little while, he went into my mothers room.

Later on that night he went to sleep and never woke up again.

I like to believe he came to me in my room on that night just to say goodbye.

Hopefully when it’s my time not to wake again, I’ll see him again.

( Photo 6 ) . Ffella in my bedroom standing on my bed, early to mid 70s.