A Cautionary Tale

At the Board of Supervisors' Health and Human Services Committee meeting yesterday, Jack Mabb, interim director of the Health Department, reported that already this year there have been four instances of rabid animals in the county: two raccoons and two cats. He then told a frightening story about a Columbia County resident's encounter with a rabid raccoon.

The man had gone out on his porch at night. He hadn't turned on the porch light, relying instead on the light emanating from the house, so he didn't see the rabid raccoon on the porch. The raccoon bit him and then ran into the house and attacked the family cat. The cat, which had recently given birth to four kittens and was still nursing them, had not been vaccinated for rabies. Mabb did not recount the fate of the raccoon, and we have to assume that the man is getting proper medical treatment, but the sad outcome for the cat and her kittens is that they all had to be euthanized.
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