I’m not totally kidding. Right now, I live in the middle of a bat colony, which seems to have established itself in my attic. I’m not totally kidding about that, either; the Public Health Department considers my house a bat colony. Over the past several years, I have found about 14 bats in the house, having taken several to Public Health to be tested. They’re tired of me — Public Health, that is. (I don’t know about the bats). They have declared my bat colony free of rabies, however.
The number of bats that I’ve had to deal with over the years has actually resulted in reducing my fear of rabies in a real-world example of systematic desensitization. Be in the same house with a bat and not get bit? Check. Live with a bat-hunting cat? Keep them in quarantine and then give them a vaccination. Check. Almost step on a dead bat in the living room? Check. Pick up the dead bat with heavy gloves? Check. Worst case scenario? Get the rabies shots. Hasn’t happened yet.
I’m not crazy enough to adopt a bat as a pet, because they’re cute but they carry rabies, which means my attic colony is not without risk. And I want the colony out of there, which will happen soon while we repair the soffits on the old house that allowed this.
Bye bye bats.
Words Like Me 