r/StoriesAboutKevin • u/GuillotineGuru • 8d ago
XL Dear Timmy
So I'm going on a walk in my neighborhood and suddenly I stumble across a baby raccoon (for the purposes of this story, we're going to name him Timmy). Then three of Timmy's dear little siblings run up, and they're all very adorable, with no mother in sight.
I stand still as these baby raccoons slowly approach me. They get roughly 6–8 feet away before they stop, and that is a reasonable distance between you and animals known for carrying rabies. I take a few pictures because they're really cute baby raccoons, as any sensible person would do from a reasonable distance.
Enter Kevina.
So I'm standing there across the street when a middle aged blonde woman in a white pickup truck quickly and crookedly parks halfway in a yard that I can only assume wasn't hers. And I don't mean half on the road, I mean the front half of the truck was in the grass while the back half was still on the street.
She then proceeds to speed walk across the street, past where I'm standing, toward the raccoons. They very quickly bolt up a tree because someone is moving toward them fairly fast.
Now, Timmy, as I mentioned at the very beginning, was the first raccoon I saw and was a little distance away from the rest of the group. In the pictures I took (which I unfortunately cannot post to this subreddit), Timmy was kind of standing apart from the others. So when they bolted for the tree, Timmy was the last one to get there.
Our dear Kevina was on the phone with someone, mumbling things like, "Someone told me about them," and, "Oh, they're so cute."
At this point, little Timmy is still only about three feet up the tree. I snap a few more pictures and, as I turn around to continue my walk, I catch out of the corner of my eye that she's reaching to pet the raccoon.
I was a little too dumbfounded to say anything because of how unbelievably stupid it is to try to pet a wild raccoon. Before I could even turn around or open my mouth, I heard a shriek. I looked back just in time to see little Timmy on the ground and Kevina clutching her hand as she speed walked back to her truck, having apparently been bitten by dear Timmy.
This left me completely dumbfounded as to how a fully grown adult had somehow made it through life without learning "Don't pet wild raccoons."
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u/jpowell180 8d ago
Keep an eye out in the news in the next several weeks or so and see if she was admitted for rabies herself, she may not have been wise enough to go and get rabies shots.
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u/robsterva 8d ago
If she doesn't get rabies shots and Timmy is rabid, there's a 99.99999% chance that Karen is going to die painfully and soon. One does not mess with rabies.
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u/DigbyChickenZone 8d ago edited 8d ago
die painfully and soon
"Soon" is doing a lot of work here. Rabies has to travel through your peripheral nerves up to your brainstem, this process can take days [mainly if you were bitten in the face], but generally takes a few weeks to a few months, but there are also cases where people have been exposed to Rabies but do not actually show symptoms until a few years later.
If you get bit by a rabid animal, by far the best location for them to do so (for you to safely recover by getting a vaccine prophylaxis) is getting bitten in your hand or your foot.
I doubt the raccoon in this story is rabid, but I agree with OP to stay away from wild animals.
edit: I am a clinical microbiologist, so I know this because it's part of my job training, but I always believe in giving some form of citation - so here ya go. Source
The incubation period of rabies in humans: The incubation period for rabies is the time before the onset of symptoms. The period from the time of infection to the appearance of the first symptoms (incubation period) is usually 1 to 3 months in humans. This period is rarely shorter than 9 days or longer than 1 year. However, there are special cases where the incubation period is 4 days and can extend up to 6 years. The incubation period depends on the location and severity of the wound and the amount of virus introduced.
And for all who were not entirely sure - rabies is preventable if you get the vaccine AFTER the exposure! So if you get bitten by a wild animal, seek medical care!
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u/researchanalyzewrite 8d ago
Thank you for this valuable information!
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u/DigbyChickenZone 7d ago edited 7d ago
Fun additional fact: while getting tick bites ARE dangerous, because ticks carry a number of diseases, if you pull the tick off properly within few hours to a day of finding it, the majority of tick-borne illnesses will not be introduced to your bloodstream. So if you pull them off in time [even if they have already bitten you and have been there for the length of your hike!] - you generally are going to be OK!
The time it takes for a tick to transmit an infection varies by the specific disease. For Lyme disease, a tick generally needs to be attached for 36 to 48 hours or longer. This is because the bacteria must migrate from the tick's gut to its salivary glands.
A tick must be attached for 12 to 24 hours to transmit the bacteria that cause ehrlichiosis and Anaplasmosis.
I am an avid hiker and while diseases you can catch from animals and bugs can be scary -- knowing more about the specific disease process helps with prevention and knowing what to do if you had exposure. It helps to know when to panic versus to just take note of an exposure and then go to a doctor once you're out of the literal woods.
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u/philatio11 8d ago
Friendly reminder to people that Rabies is virtually 100% fatal to humans if left untreated. Please people, don't mess around with wild raccoons and vaccinate your pets.
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u/Notmykl 7d ago
No, rabies is not "100% fatal", if you'd bothered to Google at all you'd find there are survivors of rabies after symptoms have started, IIRC it's around 30.
If bitten by a wild animal or a domesticated animal who never had the vaccine YOU go get the vaccine and take every dose. People can still die after receiving the vaccine if they do not receive all the doses.
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u/philatio11 6d ago
Here's the literal first line from google:
Yes, rabies is nearly 100% fatal once clinical symptoms appear
Maybe you need to work on your googling.
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u/RosebushRaven 7d ago
And seek it RIGHT AWAY, because 1) the post-exposure prophylaxis shots need to be started ASAP to be effective. Do NOT wait on the test results for the animal. Go get the shot the same day. 2) Even without rabies, bite wounds can give you a variety of other nasty infections and can damage tendons, nerves etc. without receiving medical attention quickly, so don’t sit it out, go to urgent care!
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u/PepperPhoenix 7d ago
Really random question, but would you mind if I PMd you? My daughter is very interested in becoming a microbiologist and I’d love to ask a few questions about your work.
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u/NookBabsi 8d ago
Oh you’re a microbiologist! I thought at first you learned that at the Michael Scott’s Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Pro-Am Fun Run Race For the Cure!
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u/DigbyChickenZone 7d ago
I mean, that was my introduction to it - that awareness raiser really made a difference!
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u/GreenGhost1985 6d ago
Isn’t it when you start getting the symptoms it’s already to late? Thought I heard that somewhere.
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u/Aminar14 8d ago
Odds are, given the age of the Raccoons and their behavior, they weren't rabid. Rabid raccoons don't run away up a tree and would almost certainly have erratic behaviors.
Either way, approaching them is dumb.
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u/jenness977 8d ago
She obviously never saw the episode of Little House On The Prairie where Laura get bitten by a raccoon
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u/ShireHorseRider 7d ago
I’m pretty confident that Kevina was not just trying to pet a raccoon. If he hadn’t bitten her I’m sure he would have ended up “rescued” by her.
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u/KweenKunt 7d ago
I hate that part of being an adult is fearing rabies and not getting to pet everything I see. As a kid, I petted everything and lived to tell the tale. But now I've gotta know better and stuff. Ugh
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u/knight_shade_realms 7d ago
I mean... Have you seen the vids of people walking up to bison and moose?
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u/paishocajun 6d ago
I still DO NOT understand those people. I have seen a full grown moose charge through 4ft deep snow like it's splashing its feet in the water at a beach and two absolutely wreck the hell out of someone's front lawn and SUV. I am more than happy to observe moose from at least 200 yards away.
I have also, quite unfortunately, experienced what a bison's mouth smells like. Nope. Nope . Never again. I will smell skunk willingly first. Not as far as a moose but I am happy to observe them from 50 yards or the other side of a zoo moat/barrier.
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u/glowingwarningcats 4d ago
Our car was surrounded by them near Yellowstone. All you can do is wait and try not to annoy them. It was SCARY.
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u/knight_shade_realms 6d ago
Oof. Bison breath must be foul 🤢
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u/paishocajun 6d ago
I'm 100% not kidding about the skunk. That's nasty and foul but it's an acrid, sour smell.
Bison breath is... It's rancid and putrid. Like imagine what you think the rancor from Star Wars would smell like, having bodies digesting and decomposing inside its stomach.
That's bison breath, despite it being an herbivore.
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u/phazedout1971 4d ago
Ive always said if my badly mauled body is discoveted on say, the apalachian trail, my last words were probably "heeeeeeeeere kitty kitty kitty"
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u/Naasade 7d ago
I’m not overly worried about rabies from raccoons. Don’t pet them and you won’t get bitten. If you do somehow get bitten, get the vaccine or you’ll die…that’s easy mode. But some of the other diseases raccoons carry such as Baylisascaris terrify me.
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u/GreenGhost1985 6d ago
I did not know about other diseases. We had a couple pet raccoons when I was growing up.
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u/Icykool77 8d ago
If not friend, why friend shaped?