So first let me say that this story has been days in the making. Of course due to the seriousness of the events that I am about to unfold before you I was not very eager to place them on the ole blog. None the less this story is interesting enough and I knew I would sooner or later, so while I sit here on a late Saturday night being bored and wondering what makes the world go round, I thought I would tell you the tale of a bat, a hockey stick, and a dust pan.
This story really begins a week ago. Adam, JR, Karen, Chris, and myself were in the living room area when, out of the darkness, a bat comes flying through the air. Reacting how I do to most rodents, particularly flying ones, I began screaming and covering myself with a blanket. Before anyone laughs to hard at me I would like to mention that several other male members of this adventure party reacted in similiar fashions, so I was not alone. Meanwhile JR promptly knocked the bat out of the air with a smash brothers display box. The small creature landed on the ground and started making weird ticking noise. Karen began yelling for the poor little guy to not get killed, so her and JR picked the bat up in a shirt and carried it outside to release it. Obviously this may have not been the best idea, and if I know now what I didn't know then I would of smashed that little bastard then and there.
A day or two goes by without incident. I have been sleeping on the couch more and more during the summer because of the heat and the upstairs being unbearable. Early Wednesday morning I am woke up by Emma ( my chocolate lab puppy ) barking at the ceiling. There I sight my dear friend mr bat, back for another round. He quickly flies back upstairs where, most likely, his insertion point is hidden. At this point I decide just to go to sleep. This is another moment where if I knew then what I know now....
BARK! BARK! BARK! It is 7:30 am and I hear on the ground next to me a tick, tick, ticking noise. Emma standing about two feet away barking fiercly. Guess who was back and over stepping my personal boundries? The bat. I quickly leave my position on the couch and the little winged horror flies into my kitchen, lands on a high cabient, and begins monitoring me. He must of thought he was pretty clever watching me from there.
At this point I quickly decided enough was enough and action had to be taken even though I was deathly afraid of the bat, this new train of thought was mostly inspired by the thought process of my puppy possibly being injured by this wretch. I quickly grabbed my hockey stick that has been hanging out in our kitchen for some time, as I have yet to find a proper place for it. Using the blade of the stick I pushed the bastard into the air. Swooping around the kitchen and circling my head I quickly grabbed the lucky Smash Bros. display box that had found its way to the kitchen as well, and with one great swing I forced the little aviator into an emergency landing, where I quickly found our heavy metal shop dust pan and smashed my shortly acquainted friend. I removed the corpse of my ugly tenant and placed him in his own garbage back and set him in the dumpster outside. I continued about my day...
About an hour later I began to wonder if my puppy had had her rabies shots yet. As it turns out such a shot was not to be administered until about three or so weeks from this point. After explaining the event to the vet, ( my mom made this call actually) it was recommended that we get the bat tested. I couldn't say that no contact had been made between the bat and Emma since I had been asleep during the first initial encounters. Chris found the body in the trash can and took it to the local animal control department where they told us it would take three days to get results.
I didnt think too much about the situation for the rest of the day, or as Karen, JR, and Kyle came over. As it turns out though, as I learned the next day, Rabies can be spread from a dog to a person just by being licked, not to mention of course obvious ways like scratches and bites. Even if the dog is not showing symptoms.
For three days we had to sit and watch our dog very carefully hoping that the results would come back and relieve our fears. If the bat was found to be positive and carrying rabies its hard to say what would happen to Emma, I am sure it would be something along the lines of either a really expensive quarantine, or just being put down. Neither of those options were very good in my mind, not to mention do you know what a person has to get if they are thought to have rabies? Shots, not one, but six, six shots in the stomach. I started to think about how maybe Chris, John, Karen, JR, Kyle, and I could maybe get like a group discount on the doctor visit.
Luckily Friday the most relieving phone call came through around 4pm letting us know the bat was negative. I can not even explain how relieved I was. Its very weird looking at your former favorite little puppy with the thought that they were going to turn into a crazy zombie dog at any moment.
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