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October 3rd, 2008
Q: According to a recent survey of travelers, what's the number one irritant to most fliers?
A: a child kicking your seat back. People talking on cell phones before and/or after takeoff is up there too. The good news is that a whopping 80 percent think that cell phones should continue to be banned in flight.
So, I open the Chronicle this morning, and there's an article about how we're in the midst of bat season. No, not the baseball playoffs (go Phillies), but the flying variety. While it's not time to panic (you can if you'd like), health officials are advising everyone to be on the lookout, and use a little common sense when you do encounter a bat....advice we were able to put to the test last night. I'll get to that in a sec.
With bats, rabies is the obvious concern. The bad news is that about five rabid bats are found in the City of San Francisco every year. The good news is that in the 60 years that rabies cases have been tracked in SF, the number of deaths resulting from the always-fatal-if-not-treated disease is exactly zero. So what to do if a bat gets into your house? I know it sounds kind of counter-intuitive, but health experts urge us to close all exits, so the bat stays IN the house. Then call Animal Control, or the Humane Society. See, they'll have to pick up the bat, dead or alive, and have it tested for rabies. Do not, under any circumstances try to trap the bat yourself.
So what happened at our house last night? One of our cats, Ollie (the devil cat), caught a bat, and brought it into the house. It was about 7:30, and the bat was pretty active, flying in circles in our dining room for about an hour. Kim had the presence of mind to follow the advice that appeared in the paper this AM. She's psychic that way. She closed off all the exits to keep the bat inside, then called the Humane Society. The HS showed about an hour later, caught the critter, and hauled it off for rabies testing. We'll get the results in a few days. If they come back positive, Ollie will have to be quarantined for a while despite having been vaccinated against rabies. So, vaccinations for all your critters at home.