Being Brave

We have recently dealt with a huge mess. A batty mess. Yes, we came back from our weekend in Hickory to find a bat in Collins's bedroom. I still can't believe it. I saw something in the curtains and was like, "what is THAT?!?". It was alive and asleep and Brian took care of it so it wouldn't terrorize us flying around the house. The good news is that he got it quickly, the bad news is that he hit it too hard and it couldn't be tested for rabies. Ugh...the fallout was not pretty.

It was many phone calls to animal control, the health department, the insurance company, wildlife removal service, the pediatrician and then finally a visit to the ER to get Rabies vaccinations...for both girls. Awful. We made the hard decision to give them the series of four shots because they recommend it for any child that is left alone in the room with a bat. Collins was in her room getting something when the bat was in there (unknowingly). We think there was no chance she or Addie was bitten (even if the bat did have Rabies and chances are good that it did not), but in the end we couldn't risk even a chance. Once you have Rabies, there is nothing they can do. So we spent four hours in the ER that first day and just finished our fourth trip there, and it was pretty traumatic on Collins. I honestly don't think the shots were that painful for her, it was just dealing with a new fear. I sure hope we haven't scarred her for life.

Here they are the first day at the hospital. Collins looks scared in the picture, but she did fine until it was the actual shot time. We brought princess band-aids and the iPad to help!

They both rebounded quickly after that first round of shots...

Whew! It's all over now, and we've determined it was an isolated incident. But I will tell you- hope we never have to go through that again!