Sunday, March 18, 2007

hydrophobia

Looming large among my many childhood fears was a terror of rabies. I think it was the utter finality of it. Once you got rabies, it was only a matter of time until it infected your central nervous system and you died a painful, horrible death, foaming at the mouth and unable to swallow.

I avoided squirrels, like, well, the plague, even though statistically, they're much less likely to be rabid than skunks, raccoons, or woodchucks (also known as groundhogs). I know that rabies is exceedingly rare in this country, and know too, that a series of vaccinations, if started soon enough, will prevent the disease from ever developing.

But none of this stopped me from screaming one morning, a few days ago, when I turned on the shower, stepped in and noticed a brown fuzzy blur, that, on closer inspection, turned out to be a bat curled up damply on the bathtub floor.

4 comments:

Doughnut said...

Yikes...I can imagine hearing the scream from here! How in the world did it get into the house? Did you or someone else remove it? A few years ago, we had one on the kitchen floor of an older home we lived in at the time. I put a towel over it and took it outside. I am not a bat fan but far worse for me are snakes!

Did your close encounter raise or lessen your fears?

Phantom Scribbler said...

A dead or sick bat in the tub is a damn good reason for screaming. Ack!

(You could get Someone in Authority to examine the bat, if you think there's any chance that it really was rabid. A town animal control officer would probably do it.)

niobe said...

I think the bat was alive and, once taken outside, flew off.

But, let's put it this way, if anyone gets rabies from that particular bat, it won't be me.

LawMommy said...

Oh dear god. I am DEEPLY SORRY. I once sold a house because of bats. I'm not kidding. After the fourth bat...the house went.

Gretchen