Sunday was spent reviewing the generous morsels of advice given to me by facebook friends as well as working myself into a tizzy reading the intricacies of what happens to one who contracts rabies. Anxiety - check. Paranoia - check. Terror - minicheck. In an attempt to distract myself from my imminent demise I decided to spend the rest of my evening putting tape up on my walls (with the hope of living long enough to paint). And then I saw the bat. Once again, only a few inches from my face. Seriously, bat. Save the surprises for birthdays and Christmas. Fortunately, I was armed with information this time, including the phone number for Animal Control. I, very calmly, called the number, talked to the dispatcher, and was told that the officer would get back to me. Twenty minutes later two police men showed up on my doorstep. Welcome to Small Town USA. I can only imagine the frenzy that came over the police department when that call came through; "10-96. 10-96. Crazy lady with a bat. I repeat, crazy lady with a bat. The mammal, not the wooden club. Closest unit please respond." Still operating under the assumption that the officers would have valuable information regarding my likelihood of contracting rabies, I let them inside and showed them upstairs to the bat's lair. One of the officers then proceeded to wrap the bat in a towel and release it outside. Thank you, civil servant of Bath. I totally could have done that (in theory... if I had very thick gloves... and some form of reach-rod... and a stiff drink).
My bat saga ended today with a call to the CDC. I learned that, assuming I would wake up to someone pinching me with tweezers, I was likely not exposed to bat saliva and do not need to begin rabies vaccination. With this, in addition to the knowledge that only 0.5% of tested bats are positive for rabies, I have stopped analyzing my symptom progression hourly.
This is the part where I should relate this story to yoga. But, in actuality, it has nothing to do with yoga. I just thought you all might enjoy the epic story of the (nearly) rabid ginger.
Happy August!
We had a bat at our rental cottage one night several years ago. We opened all the windows and I slept with the lights on (i really didn't sleep...) And in the morning the rental agent sent "batman and robin" to hunt that bat down! (no one found him -- and he did not appear again..... (but I was ever afraid to be there alone......!!)
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