(Warning: This video contains mildly inappropriate language.)
As cottagers, we accept that some campfire traditions are inevitable. Gather around a fire in the woods with your friends, and you can be certain that beers will be sipped, marshmallows will be roasted, and ghost stories will be told.
And invariably, someone will break out their acoustic guitar, leading to off-key covers of Van Morrison and the Hip that always sound better after a few drinks.
Such was the case at Oregon’s Clackamas County campsite last weekend, when Darrick Skou was jamming on his guitar with a few friends. Except this time, not everyone was on board with the sing-along. While Skou was mid-strum, a bat latched onto his shirt and crawled up his torso to bite him on the neck.
“Something hit me. I was concentrating on staying in time and all that, and it hit me here, and I kind of saw something out of my peripheral vision. And then it’s there and then it just bit me,” Skou told KATU News.
“It was like a cold dog nose,” he said. “It was just a cold bite.”
As the video above shows, Skou swore and swung at his assailant, which settled in a tree above before flying down and attacking him twice more.
Worried that the bat was rabid due to its peculiar behaviour, Skou’s fellow campers managed shoot the bat with a BB gun, and they brought it to Multnomah County health officials, who determined that bat was indeed rabid.
Thankfully, Skou was able to receive treatment before the onset of symptoms, as rabies is deadly in humans when left untreated.
