Lore

Attack of the Bat

It seemed kind of funny at the time. You wake up and there’s a little bat flying around (inside) the house. There are lots of bats in downtown Charleston. I like bats. So what if one snuck inside? In fact, we often sit outside with a drink at sunset and cheer them on as the fly through the sky feasting on mosquitoes. In Austin, watching the bats appear from Congress Avenue bridge is a nightly event…they’ve become celebrities.

But these little flying insect eaters just moved notches down on my “things I like” list. After laughing off the bat incident the other morning and sharing the story with some friends, we soon learned that a bat in the house at night is serious business. Like rabies serious. Apparently, 5% of bats have rabies and if you or others were sleeping you can’t always tell if you’ve been bitten or scratched. So, you have to assume the worst (rabies) and start up the shots….today was the first of 6 part series. Feels like someone kicked me right in the butt.

A bit of advice from the doc…if you ever have a bat in the house or get in a tussle with one, then catch it with a net or tell it to “stay!” Just don’t let it get away because if they (health dept) can test it and if he’s clean you are off the hook.

Happy sleeping.