Main event: Being bit by a possum
POV: Ellis
Time period: Not long after the shower battle. Maybe 6 months later.
Did I ever tell you guys about the time that Keith got bit by a possum?
This wasn't too long after his first 3rd degree burn incident. The scabs were all gone but he was still a little pink, so we were just messin around in the woods and trying to take it easy. I can't remember what we were up to originally, but we came across a possum layin on the ground. It wasn't moving so Keith went to check it out. I was pretty sure it just did one of its possum fainting tricks but Keith thought it was dead.
I said, "Careful man, just in case it aint dead" and no sooner after I said it BAM, the thing latches onto his forearm. He's jerking around tryin to get it to let go, and the more he pulls, the more his skin tears open cause its still real thin and sensitive from the burns. He's yellin at me to get it off and I don't want to get bit too. Since its summer and I don't have a jacket, I take off my shirt and wrap it around the possum so that it can't move and use a stick to wedge its mouth open.
The wound is real bad, bleeding everywhere and I tell him we need to go to the hospital and get a rabies test on the possum. He says fine and we start walkin toward town again. He asks me how they test for rabies and I told him the truth.
I was like, "well, they euthanize the animal and then open the brain up and test on it."
Keith stops dead in his tracks and just says, "Let the possum go, Ellis."
I say, "But its the only way to be sure. If you don't get the possum tested, you're gonna have to get rabies treatment anyway and you don't wanna do that unless you have to."
He insists, tells me to leave the possum alone, says "Its my fault the possum bit me. I don't want them to kill it because I'm an idiot. I'll just get the damn treatment but let the damn possum go."
I tried to tell him that the treatment wasn't cheap but he wouldn't listen.
So I did what he said, and went with him to the hospital. He needed stitches to close the wound and lo and behold, he needed to get the rabies treatment 'just in case' because he said that the possum bit him and then got away.
He had to get four of those intramuscular shots over a 2 week period. Then another shot right by the bite before they closed it up. Luckily our work had pretty good health insurance...didn't cover all of it though.