<p>Many years ago, my niece who was three at the time (she is a college student now), was walking with my brother down the road in front of their house and from a hole in the ground in broad daylight ran a raccoon. It latched on to her ankle and wouldn’t let go. My brother frantically picked up a large stick and beat the animal to death. In the process of killing the animal, he punctured his hand by a nail embedded in the stick.</p>
<p>He called the animal control (upstate NY) they were there within the hour, retrieved the animal and had it tested for rabies, which turned out to be positive.
Both my brother and his daughter underwent a series of shots over the course of five days. At the time there was a rabies outbreak in the area. It is always lurking and should be taken seriously. </p>
<p>Never approach a nocturnal animal in the daytime without assuming they are sick.</p>
<p>One night we heard a peculiar noise in our bedroom, and when we turned on the light, we saw a small bat flying around in circles in our room. Gah!!! We opened the window, and I finally chased it out with a broom. A few years later I read about something similar happening to another family in our town–and how they all had to go get rabies shots, even though they didn’t touch the bat. Gulp!!!</p>
<p>P.S. We think the bat came down the chimney, so we got a screen for the top of the chimney after that.
P.P.S. We also had squirrels in our (inaccessible) attic, and we had to hire a trapper to get rid of them.</p>
<p>^ We awoke years ago to the same bat situation in our bedroom. We all had to get rabies shots because it was impossible to know if the bat had touched us (bitten, scratched) while we were asleep. Not fun.</p>
<p>We used to have a wonderful dog we rescued—looked like collie/shepherd mix. He always slept on a bed in the kitchen. Never bothered us at night and always obeyed commands to stay. </p>
<p>One night we awoke to hear him growling in our bedroom doorway. After checking the house and finding nothing, we admonished him and sent him to his bed. He was immediately back in doorway, looking out from room and making a constant, low growl. Finally, we found a bat hidden up on living room crown molding.</p>
<p>After getting bat out of the house, the wonderful watch dog licked us profusely and quietly went to bed for the night!</p>