by John Jefferson

If a seemingly friendly wild animal is close enough to pet, quickly ask yourself if this is normal behavior. If “NOT”, then DON’T — and move to safer ground.

A friend sent me the following.

“Late Saturday night, my wife noticed a fox on our front porch chewing on a pair of boots. We decided it was going to damage my boots, so we needed to scare it away. I opened the front door, expecting that the fox would immediately flee. It did not and actually attempted to come inside through the open door. We didn’t give it a chance. It then stood at the end of the porch and started barking. The fox stayed on the porch and started tearing up a bag of garbage. My wife opened the door again and made loud noises to scare it away. However, it charged her and bit her on her left leg. I immediately went outside and shot it.

We took my wife to the emergency room that night. They treated her minor bite wound and started her on the rabies protocol (rabies immunoglobulin injections and a series of rabies vaccinations).  We [gave]the City of Mason animal control officer the fox carcass. The test came back from the lab positive for rabies. We should not have opened the door again, once we realized that the animal was acting abnormally. It should have fled immediately once it knew we were there. That should have been a warning to us. Fortunately, my wife is going to be fine.”

That happened in Mason County. Burnet and Williamson counties are frequently near the top of the list of counties with confirmed cases of rabies. Travis scores big time, too, mostly with rabid bats. Do not touch ANY bats – alive or otherwise. The risk is high.
A friend’s mother told me what happened inside their home. They lived on a large ranch in rural Kerr County. Her grown son was reading the newspaper one evening when something caught his eyes. A wild bobcat had entered through a defective screen door and was strolling across the living room floor. Realizing that this was not normal, he carefully shot the cat and took its head to a vet. Yes, it was rabid. Any unusual act by a wild animal should be considered an alert.

First aid for an animal bite is pretty simple: Wash the bite area with soap and water and seek medical attention – PRONTO! GET TO EMERGENCY MEDICAL TREATMENT AT ONCE! More information is available at https://www.dshs.state.tx.us/idcu/disease/rabies/information/facts/.

Rabies can happen in practically any county, but according to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission these are the top 11 counties with the most positives reported in 2019: Travis (bats), Bexar (bats), Harris ( bats), Hays (bats, others) tied, Burnet (skunks/coons,others) tied, Williamson (bats), Brazoria (bats), Randal (skunks), Llano (racoons, others), Hall (skunks), Bandera (racoons).

Most prevalent positive animals: Bats (289), skunks (173), racoons (43), foxes (29), cats (16), dogs (6), cows and horses (4 each), coyotes (1).

JJ