Bats and Other Things – July 27

My friend, D, lives in New York City, but spends some time in St. Louis.  A few years ago, she had quite a bat experience.  I am reminded of it, since I have heard from a few people about the danger of bats and rabies, with regard to the little bat that I rescued from drowning.

Well, D was planning a drive back to NYC from STL.  She was all packed and ready to go, and had one banana left in the house, which she planned to eat for breakfast.  When she picked up the banana, it looked like it had been chewed a little bit, as though a mouse had tasted it.   But it was just the banana skin, so she peeled it and ate the fruit.

D went upstairs to get one last thing, and to her shock, there was a bat in the house!  She opened a window, and the bat flew away.  But then, she began to think about it.  Perhaps it was the BAT that had tasted the banana!

Of course, D is more savvy than I am about the danger of bats and rabies, so she called her concierge doctor.  This was a few years ago, and I had never heard of such a thing, but now Harry also has a concierge doctor, a luxury well worth having as we get older.  D’s doctor advised her that she should not set out for New York without getting treatment for rabies.

The bat was gone, so there was no way to check it for rabies, and since the disease is 100% fatal, the doctor felt it was best to be cautious.  Saliva carries the virus, and the banana had been chewed.

So, poor D had to postpone her departure to get the first of a series of rabies shots.  The concierge doctor arranged for stops en route to New York (D was stopping to visit friends in The Berkshires) for locations to give the followup rabies shots in the series.

D was fine, and she reports that the injections were not as dreadful as we had heard they would be when we were children, and warned constantly of the dangers of rabies.  Not to mention watching Old Yeller!

Anyway, back to my situation… I was unaware that the floating thing in the tub was a bat until after I had tossed it out of the water.  Once I realized it was a bat, and alive, I did put gloves on and used a towel to hold the bat while I shook it to clear its lungs. I did not give it mouth to mouth resuscitation!   I put it in a tree to dry out, and I did not find it dead, so I assume it dried out and flew away.  Of course I do not know that it was not rabid, but my encounter was on July 14, and I am still alive and healthy.  One alarmist friend reminded me that rabies incubation can take from 4 days to several months to manifest.

Here are more facts – the percentage of bats that carry rabies is 6% (most of those are NOT little brown bats, as my encounter was, but rather, silver haired bats).  That means there is a better than 94% chance that the bat did not have rabies. In Maine, only 1 out of 200 bats tested had rabies, recently.  Annually, there are between zero and two deaths from bat rabies in the United States.  Worldwide, 30,000 people contract and die from rabies, and 99%  of those get rabies from dogs.  Also, this month’s National Geographic features bats!  I recommend it.

Well, if I do get rabies and die, tell my story as a warning.  Something will end my time here, and that would be an unpleasant, but memorable way to go.   I have consulted a couple of medical professionals, who have told me not to worry about it, so I prefer to imagine the gratitude of the bats for my lack of prejudice.  I will, however, be assiduous about bat contact in future.  And I will continue to love bats and appreciate their insectivorious appetites. They are an integral part of our intricate natural tapestry.

Meanwhile, life here goes on, with Jane meeting up for early morning rides and our sights vaguely set on September. We shall see what happens. The horses are enjoying rich grass from epic July rainfall, which is not doing their diets much good. The Pearl brothers are embarrassingly portly.

Requests for Weedy pictures inspired a photo session. He was not pleased, but eventually I got a couple of pictures of the real, handsome Weedy. Note Stone, Harry’s horse, in the background.

Sorry to report the stream has developed a leak. The Missouri Ponds men, Colin and Evan, came out promptly to work on it. They did a great job in very hot conditions, fixing the stream issues that they did not create. The original Pond guy did a poor job (I won’t name him), but we feel very fortunate that they have stepped in to rescue us.

Speaking of Eddy, he is very happy to have freedom, now that he is trained to the SpotOn collar and fence. Life is good!

I was dumping some weeds and found a little brown roughsnake under the mess in the bed of the Kawasaki Mule. One of my favorite reptiles… it had an unexpected relocation into the west woods!

The birds have had a good year, with many apparently young ones visiting the back porch to eat. The squirrels will be getting less bird seed now that Eddy is allowed outside. They get plenty of treats in the woods beyond Eddy’s invisible border. The birds are not sorry to see the greedy Nutkins move out.

The garden continues to be beautiful despite my neglect.

Marianne continues to help in the barn, and brightens it with her smile. She had a fun time riding in the flood water of her pond on her magnificent Liam. A year ago, he would not go near water, and now he delights in it!

In the studio, Harry has begun to plan the General’s armature assembly.

There has been a rapprochement in the feline realm. For years some antipathy has existed between Roscoe (Maltese King of Cats) and Tom Morris (big, young, and arrogant interloper). They stare and sometimes hurl insults, but this week they seem to have accepted some sort of truce. Would that the Middle East could do the same!

We are having another rainy July day, but a welcome steady rain, not a downpour. The horses went out early, but poor Oisin has a low tolerance for bugs. You can see his annoyance in the picture, preceding his departure for the shed to escape the flies.

Be well, be grateful, be kind. Slava Ukraini! Peace.