A Bat Flying Overhead At Three In The Morning
Let Me Share Some Information
Finding a small dead bat in my bathtub, while doing a walk through in my new home, should have sent off an alarm. Little did I know then what was on the horizon.
The first sighting was during the late summer the following year. I awoke to find a bat flying over my head at three in the morning. I love bats, but that’s terrifying. I pulled the comforter over my head, and skulked around the upstairs, looking to see where he landed.
After fifteen minutes or so, I saw him flying around in the guest room. I closed the door and went back to bed, but making sure I pulled the sheet up to cover me everywhere. The next morning I gingerly opened the door to see where it was.
He was quietly hanging upside down on the window frame, clearly not rabid. “Come on, little beast, we’re going outside.” I grabbed a plastic sleeve sitting on the desk nearby and brought him outside to free him, but his nail caught on the plastic so, I quickly flicked my finger against his nail to release it.
Well, he wasn’t sure that’s what I was doing so, he swiftly nipped me. Just a tiny dot with the smallest amount of blood. I said ouch. My neighbor heard me and asked what happened. I said, “oh, nothing, just a little nip from a bat I’m releasing back into the neighborhood.”
She became alarmed. “Lu, you have to go to get rabies vaccine shots” “Oh, Pat, it’s just a little pinprick, I said, smiling.” As a city girl, I was so clueless about the wild world. I told Pat I’d wait until there were symptoms, then I’d get the vaccine. “You can’t do that, her voice raised a few octaves, by the time symptoms begin, it’s too late, you die.”
Oh, dying, that’s a different story. I’ll make some phone calls tomorrow.
The next day I called the Health Department, where I learned the vaccine would cost about $2,500.00. “WHAT!” was my reply.” As a single mom, I didn’t have insurance at the time. Luckily they told me a person can have up to a month before getting the shots, but they recommend them soon after, than later.
I began reading everything I could find about bats and rabies. One site was called “BatCon.Org. The website where I found out about how great bats are for the environment, and how scary rabid infected bats can be.
A young woman from Westport died of rabies, they couldn’t figure out how she became infected. After researching how that could have happened, their final conjecture was bats drank from her swimming pool. I don’t know if I agree with that, but here’s the link.
Now I’m hysterical, thinking I have every symptom on the list for rabies. I called Bill, my friend and doctor, at three in the morning, something I’ve never done before. I told him I had rabies, with all the symptoms. He was groggy when he answered but said, “don’t panic, you have time. The symptoms you’re describing are generic; you don’t have rabies, come to the office tomorrow and we’ll begin the vaccine.” I’ll put the cost on the books, you can pay me a little at a time.” I took a deep breath, and thanked him. I told him I’d be in at 10 o’clock. Before he hung up he said, “now, get the hell to bed, it’s three AM.”
I walked into his office at 10, sat down across from him on the other side of his enormous antique desk and said, “Bill, you look like shit, you should really get more sleep.” He threw a magazine at me.
Here’s the article of the first person to survive rabies, doctors put her in a coma.
I decided to call service to seal up the openings in my attic, and humanly remove any bats still squatting there. They also put in a bat door so bats could come and go without venturing into my living space.
That was the last bat to enter the house. What a relief.
Thank you for reading
Lulu
