Rabies




	WRITE 2 THE HEART Stories that are aimed "Write 2 the Heart" April 24, 2002 Issue 042402 Cheryl Speir, Editor, moderator@write2theheart.com -------------------------------------------------------- By subscription only! Welcome to your next issue of "WRITE 2 THE HEART" ------------------------------------------------------- Do you have a heart-warming story to share with our readers? We are accepting story submissions at this time. Please email your original story to moderator@write2theheart.com ---------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------- The encounter only lasted four to six minutes, but the experience will last a lifetime. Today's story goes beyond entertaining you, it should make you think about how you would handle a similar situation. ---------------------------------------------------------- Rabies! By James L. Tiller --------------------------------------------------------- Since experiencing an encounter with a rabid raccoon I have been thinking over the incident. A fellow can't help considering the what-ifs and the this-and-that's after such an experience. I have read several articles concerning rabies, but none of it prepared me for the actual event of an encounter with a rabid animal. I know that likely all of us are aware of how serious rabies is, but I doubt that many of us realize what we would be facing if we were attacked by a rabid animal. I know I learned quite a bit through that experience. I am an old-time raccoon hunter from way back. I have handled mean dogs, and separated fighting dogs through physical intimidation. You can intimidate even wild animals while they have the mental capacity to reason, and have fear of you. An animal that has rabies is insane; they have no fear of anything, they feel no pain. The only instinct they retain is to attack, and they have to be killed to stop their attack. Believe me, they are hard to kill. I once believed that I was capable of protecting myself from most any animal, even if they had rabies, but now I know better. I decided to relate this incident so everyone will have a better understanding of an encounter with a rabid animal. I have been physically disabled since January of 1991. Though I can walk all right, I can't run, and mental stress and excitement really drains my energy fast. It seems that my luck runs by the basketful, either all good or all bad. I had suffered a mini-stroke on January 4th, and was kept busy having related medical tests through January, February, and March, which was enough to wear me out. Then, on the 16th of April, we had an experience to make us forget about all of that. This just goes to show how fickle nature can be. We had almost two weeks of beautiful sunshine and temperatures in the low 80's. My wife, Betty and I took advantage of the opportunity and were working at expanding our garden, an hour here and there. And we were feeling a little better. The spring sunshine was doing us good. It rained over the weekend and things were too wet to work in the dirt, so we were just enjoying a day of doing nothing. Then, around three in the afternoon, while I was getting my daily lay-down/nap, I heard Betty yelling, saying there was a raccoon in the yard. I got the feeling something wasn't right, and hurried to get a look. The raccoon was on the porch steps when I got to the door. Now raccoons don't usually wander around in the daylight near someone's home. This one was acting like it had something on its mind, and came straight to the porch. The cats scurried up the porch posts into the joists of the roof. The raccoon climbed up and attacked the cat that was the last one to climb the post. I knew then that this was not a normal raccoon. The cat jumped, and broke the raccoon's hold, and ran to an oak tree near the driveway. The raccoon jumped after the cat. I headed for the bedroom to get my rifle as the cat and raccoon were crossing the yard, while Betty watched them. I couldn't allow a rabid raccoon to get away if it was at all possible to kill it. Raccoons are more at home in trees than cats, and the raccoon caught the cat twenty feet from the ground. The cat squirmed free, fell out of the tree, and ran out of sight behind the workshop. I was excited, and trembling so badly I was having trouble loading my rifle. I finally did get it loaded. I was going out the door when Betty grabbed the phone and called a neighbor. I heard her tell him, "We've got a rabid raccoon down here. I'm afraid Jimmy is going to get bit!" Then Betty yelled to me, "Rick is coming to help! The raccoon may still be in the tree! The cat ran behind the shop!" She had lost sight of the raccoon while she was making the call. I was searching the oak tree when Rick showed up with his shotgun. Then we heard the cat squall from somewhere behind the workshop. Without thinking, I took off running. I made about six steps, my knees went to mush, and I fell flat on my face with my rifle under me. I managed to get to my feet and continued around the shop toward the creek, only I walked now. I was so weak I barely was able to take a step. The cat squalled again as I was getting to my feet. Rick asked me, "Could you tell where they might be?" I pointed over to the creek bank. Betty yelled again, "I see them! They're across the creek!" Actually, when we got to where we could see better, the raccoon and the cat were in the creek near the far side in shallow water, and the raccoon was killing the cat. I didn't get the raccoon located until Rick had already shot one barrel of the shotgun. The raccoon didn't even fall over, though I knew Rick didn't miss a raccoon at twelve feet, and I could see blood in the water. Rick shot again and the raccoon fell forward, but he was still able to try to catch the cat again as it wallowed in the water, too feeble to make much effort to escape. Rick had only brought the two shells for his shotgun. It was still loaded from turkey hunting that morning, and he grabbed it up in a hurry thinking two shells would be enough. But that raccoon was one tough customer. The turkey shot didn't disable him, only slowed him down, when normally two blasts from a twelve gauge shotgun would have stopped a bear at such close range. My .22 rifle had hung in the gun rack for over a year, and the lenses of the telescopic sight were dusty, and I was having trouble even seeing the raccoon. But I finally did get the cross hairs on him as he tried to catch the cat again. I fired twice and my gun jammed. But the raccoon, still attacking the cat after taking two blasts from a twelve- gauge shotgun and two bullets from a 22 cal. rifle, stumbled into deeper water and drowned by the time I was ready to shoot again. Are you wondering if I was scared? You bet I was! When my gun jammed, and that critter was still going after the cat, I imagine my hair was standing straight up. I sure was relieved when I saw him drown! I went ahead and killed the cat. It was hurt too bad to recover, and would have had to be destroyed anyway, since it was attacked by a rabid raccoon. We used a telescopic tree pruner to drag the raccoon and the cat to our side of the creek. Then I turned a trash bag inside-out and worked the raccoon into the bag. It was only a matter of from four to six minutes from the time Betty first saw the raccoon to the instant he drowned, but I was ready to drop by the time I was washing in a 50/50 solution of chlorine bleach and water. The Health Department declined to do any testing, since the raccoon was shot with a shotgun and there was the likelihood that some of the shot had penetrated the brain. They said that since they had several positive test results from animals that were killed in the area, to just assume that this raccoon did have rabies. I was certain of that all along. Just by looking at the raccoon you couldn't have told there was anything wrong with him. He wasn't drooling, or foaming at the mouth. He was steady on his feet. He was strong, and could still out climb the cat. His behavior was the only outward sign that he wasn't a normal raccoon. I hope that this impresses on everyone that, even though an animal looks to be perfectly normal, if they are where you wouldn't expect to see them, or see them at the wrong time of day, be suspicious, and get away from them. Go inside, or get in your car. Don't wait until they are close to you. If they have rabies, you can't scare them away by hitting them with a rock or a stick. They have no fear, and you can't hurt them enough to make them back off. If they attack you they will continue to attack until they are dead! The raccoon we dealt with was so focused on attacking the cat that he never realized that we were there. I'm sure that if he had realized that we were, there would have been a different story to be told. At any rate, you can bet your britches that I'll never go out to hunt down a rabid raccoon with a .22 Cal. rifle again. I'll not use turkey loads in my shotgun either. I'll use the heaviest shot my gun will handle. James L. Tiller <mtmanjim @ hotmail.com> (You are encouraged to write to the authors to let them know what you think of their story, just remember to remove the space before and after the @ symbol. The space is placed in the address to protect our writers from viruses.) -------------------------------------------------------- I am just a 58-year-old country boy who was born and raised on the property I live on now that is part of the farm that my great-grandfather owned back in the 1800's. A real Virginia mountain hillbilly. Due to the necessities of life, I trained to be a brick mason, later I trained to be a machinist. In my younger days I was an avid raccoon hunter, deer hunter, and bass fisherman. I didn't have time to read a lot, much less think about writing anything. I begin to write short stories and novels after becoming disabled in 1991, just to have something to do that wasn't physically demanding. Now I guess you could say that I am an amateur novelist. --------------------------------------------------------- Loved this issue, keep up the lifting up of others through your work, I know it blesses me. David ***** I loved "Because He Lives", what a faith builder. I love knowing that God gives us glimpses of Himself. Jill --------------------------------------------------------- Cheryl's Corner We had a crawfish boil Saturday night to celebrate David's birthday with all the kid's and grandson's. I bought a large package of water guns. The only rule was you could not squirt anyone on the patio. Everyone had a great time. After we boiled all the crawfish and vegetables, (by the way, I experimented with boiling whole baby squash and it was wonderful!) we put in a ham to soak up the spices. That is one of our favorite things. A slice of spicy ham with Corn Salad, yummy! God bless Cheryl --------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------- © 2002 Write 2 the Heart Nothing may be reproduced or published without the written permission of the individual author or copyright owner. 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