Woman Shares Ride in Truck With Bat
FOUKE, Ark. - Amanda Jones had a little trouble coming to grips with whatever was flying around in the cab of her truck. The creature, which flew in through her half-open window as she drove in darkness, was flapping around her head and neck. She swatted at it to try to make it go away.
"I thought it was a big moth. I never expected it to be a bat," Jones said.
It was about 1 a.m. Sunday that Jones learned the joys of suddenly sharing a ride with a bat. With one of her swipes, she knocked the animal down. When she turned on the interior light, she saw the still-living bat on the floorboard.
The bat had a wingspan of about 5 inches, she said. Jones finished the drive to her home in Fouke in far southwestern Arkansas.
"I went in the house. I didn't want to see it anymore. My husband went back out to the truck and it was hanging upside down from the truck seat. It wouldn't get out of the truck. He finally caught it in a Mason jar."
Bats can carry rabies and are responsible for many human cases of the illness. Since Jones isn't sure whether the animal bit or scratched her, she took the animal in for testing to the Miller County Health Unit where it was sent off to the state lab.
Results are pending on whether the bat was rabid.
"At the time it happened, I was freaking out," Jones said. "It flopped all the way down the side of my body."
FOUKE, Ark. - Amanda Jones had a little trouble coming to grips with whatever was flying around in the cab of her truck. The creature, which flew in through her half-open window as she drove in darkness, was flapping around her head and neck. She swatted at it to try to make it go away.
"I thought it was a big moth. I never expected it to be a bat," Jones said.
It was about 1 a.m. Sunday that Jones learned the joys of suddenly sharing a ride with a bat. With one of her swipes, she knocked the animal down. When she turned on the interior light, she saw the still-living bat on the floorboard.
The bat had a wingspan of about 5 inches, she said. Jones finished the drive to her home in Fouke in far southwestern Arkansas.
"I went in the house. I didn't want to see it anymore. My husband went back out to the truck and it was hanging upside down from the truck seat. It wouldn't get out of the truck. He finally caught it in a Mason jar."
Bats can carry rabies and are responsible for many human cases of the illness. Since Jones isn't sure whether the animal bit or scratched her, she took the animal in for testing to the Miller County Health Unit where it was sent off to the state lab.
Results are pending on whether the bat was rabid.
"At the time it happened, I was freaking out," Jones said. "It flopped all the way down the side of my body."
