Life on Devil’s Island

[Maple Syrup Actual]

I feel like there is a story here.

There is indeed!

The second year we had the place, we went up there one long weekend and on the Thursday after work and the trip over, we were so exhausted that we fell asleep on the couches downstairs around 8pm. And sometime around midnight, Erin woke me up.

"I think there's a bat in here," she said.

There isn't a main light source, and at the time of the bat, all we had were flashlights, but there was definitely a bat flying around up there.

"It's okay," I said, "I'll just open the big window upstairs and it'll probably want to get out."

I went upstairs and tilted open the big window on the south side of the loft and sat down on the bed with a light pointed at the window. Two bats flew in. I closed the window and went downstairs.

"This isn't going well," I said.

So we lay on the couches and watched for a while, trying to figure out where the first one got in. Sure enough, we eventually saw a bat going into a crack right up at the top of the front wall. Okay. I waited for a couple of hours and eventually they were all out of the cabin at the same time and I took a ladder and jammed some newspaper in the crack and that was that.

I didn't give it a lot of thought at first. But at some point a day or so later, it struck me that I had read something about bats and rabies in BC. So I looked it up, and it turns out that in BC, bats are the only real reservoir of rabies. And there were a bunch of references saying "if you wake up in the room and there is a bat, contact a doctor immediately." That seemed excessive, but I figured that once we got back home in a couple of days, we could look into it.



We arrived back home early Sunday morning and I had to work that day so I left Erin at home. I looked up the public heath number and called it and they told me to go to the ER immediately. Naturally I called Erin and told her and she said she'd head to the clinic up the street.

I wrapped up my work stuff and went to the hospital. There was about a four hour wait to see the doctor, so I checked in with Erin again. She'd gone up to the clinic but they had no idea what to do, and told her they would contact the BC Centre for Disease Control and get back to her.

In the meantime, the hospital had called the BC CDC about me. But so had the public health people that I had called. Then, when the doctor's office called Erin back they left the contact info for the CDC and Erin called them. They weren't open, and Erin left a message.



All this happened while I was in the hospital waiting room. Finally an ER doctor came out. "You're fine," he said. "Nobody has rabies. Why did you come to the ER?"

"Not by choice," I said, "I called the public health hotline and they told me I had to."

"The public health hotline is a joke," he said, "they tell everybody to go to the ER for everything."

"Okay," I said, "but all the stuff said if you wake up with a bat in the room?"

"A rabid bat, maybe. You're fine."



So I went home. Erin was home and we had a laugh about it and that was that.




EXCEPT: The CDC had somehow not put together all the different reports as two people who were together and were coincidentally reported twice each. They read it as four possible rabid bat exposures and for the next two weeks all of our phone numbers at home and at work and our cell phones were constantly bombarded with different people from the CDC trying to investigate this 5000% or whatever surge in rabies exposure, all from bats getting into homes.



And this is actually why, in another thread, I'd been asking about rabies PEP. Because you basically can't get that here. They maintain such small stocks of it that they won't give it to you unless you can pretty much prove that a bat bit or scratched you. Or if you're a mayor. But that's another story.

[Totem Polar]

Or if you're a mayor. But that's another story.

This...

Is the writer we know, love, and miss.

Dope opening for the sequel, brother.

[1slow]

Quote Originally Posted by misanthropist
Or if you're a mayor. But that's another story.


Always good to read your stories !

[Hambo]

And this is actually why, in another thread, I'd been asking about rabies PEP. Because you basically can't get that here. They maintain such small stocks of it that they won't give it to you unless you can pretty much prove that a bat bit or scratched you. Or if you're a mayor. But that's another story.

My wife, the nurse, wanted me to get rabies shots several years ago. Not because I was foaming at the mouth, but because I hunting a hogs a lot of the time and killing raccoons that raided the feeder. At the time, there was a big problem here with rabid raccoons. To appease my wife, I called the health department, who told me to go fuck myself. They did mention that a neighboring county's health department might help. I called them, and they said, "Sure, come on down...and bring that $800 you owe us." I said something like, "$800 fucking dollars?" "Right," said the health department lady, "In advance. Then we'll order it for you, and when it comes in you can come and get the first shot." So I'm not vaccinated. I thought about asking my dog's vet if she could give me rabies vaccine. Three Labrador size shots should work for me. Or maybe 45 chihuahua sized shots. If I knew where they kept the shit I'd break in while my dog gets his nails trimmed and just inject myself.

[FrankinCA]

Go West Young Ragnor...heed the Omens and keep your Delica sharp..

[willie]

A kid at my school bit me so hard that I had to use an unapproved technique to break the hold. I insisted that the district pay for rabies shots. They told me to shut up.

[11B10]

I have nothing to offer in this thread... but I am sure enjoying it. And my God, that island is beautiful.

THIS ^^^^^!!!!!!

[Totem Polar]

No reason. Just thought of this thread...