From time to time, I get bats in and around my apartment. This comes as no big surprise seeing as I live in an attic and everything. But last weekend the Halloween episode of This American Life featured callers telling real-life horror stories. And one of them was about bats. In a sound bite that couldn't have lasted longer than two minutes, my formerly tolerant opinion of my nocturnal, mammalian, winged neighbors (and sometimes roommates) was egregiously readjusted. Apparently bats have been known to bite sleeping people without waking up their victims or leaving marks. Many bats also have rabies, and the window within which someone exposed to rabies must find treatment is an alarmingly brief 72 hours. So what happens if a bat bites me in my sleep and I don't realize it and get the anti-rabies vaccine in time? Exactly.
