Autumn looms. The kids are back in school. The mornings are brisk. And the laughter of the children fades as they cling to the memories of another summer filled with baseball, soccer, camping, swimming and, of course, picking up sick, dying bats and putting them on the playground equipment.
Here you’re probably thinking, “Kids still play soccer?” and I would say yes, and because they are children they are still learning the nuances of the world’s greatest sport. Such as how to collapse in a heap and fake an injury.
But today we will discuss the rabid Big Brown Bat (Eptesicus fuscus) that flopped around in Pueblo last week until some nice kids found it and played with it, and by played with it I mean they took it to a playground and sent it down the slide a few times.
From Pueblo parent Rosalynd Leal, who lives near the area where the kids found the bat, as told to Fox21 News: “They were keeping it as a pet, feeding it raspberries, taking it around the neighborhood, putting it down the slide, like a pet.”
Pueblo health department workers left flyers with a photo of a Big Brown Bat around an apartment building after finding out that kids there had been playing with the rabid bat.
“It is extremely important anyone who had contact with the bat be identified as soon as possible,” said Dr. Christine Nevin-Woods, Pueblo’s public health director.
Bat-handling tip from the health department: “Do not pick up a bat with your hands, even if you’re wearing gloves. Use a shovel and double trash bags.”
On a related note, the same safety procedure is recommended when handling Rush Limbaugh.
The Big Brown Bat is the most common of some 20 bat species found in Colorado. It is, as its name implies, a bat of considerable size with a wingspan measuring some 350 millimeters (or 3 acres).
And its habitat is closely associated with humans, hanging around, literally, in homes, barns and other structures.
From the organization Colorado Bat Working Group: “Color is always some shade of brown, varying from russet to almost black and chocolate.”
It is, therefore, possible the kids in Pueblo mistook the bat for a Yorkshire Terrier. (Experts say a key identifying trait is that bats are far less annoying than Yorkshire Terriers. And more cuddly.)
Anyway, health officials are trying to find the kids who handled the bat and put it down the slide on the playground.
Warning: Do not touch a bat. Ever. A healthy, non-rabid bat, we are told, will not come near enough to humans to be touched. If a bat is slow, lying on the ground or falls from a tree, it is infected. Leave it alone. Get away.
And so another batch of childhood memories vanishes, the good old days of long-ago summers, a time before video games and the Internet when kids gathered at dusk to play games such as “Duck, Duck, Bat!” And “Pin the Bat on the Donkey.” And “Rock, Paper, Bat.”
My personal favorite was “Red Rover.” (“Red Rover, Red Rover, send the rabid bat on over.”) Now that was fun. I still chuckle every time I run my fingers over all the tiny bite scars on my forehead.
E-mail Rich Tosches at richtosches@gmail.com.
