When I Got Rabies...

I know, you are probably thinking, "How did you contract rabies?"  Let me tell you the story.  About fourteen years ago, I noticed something strange happening to my cat.  She started acting funny.  She was twitching, foaming at the mouth, and then couldn't move her body.  When I went to pick her up, she scratched me, so I put her on my front porch.  What is the first thing you think of when you see an animal foaming at the mouth?  Rabies!  I did what anyone would do in my position.  I googled it.  She seemed to have the symptoms of rabies, so then I started to panic.  People get rabies from animals all the time.  My cat could have gotten it from a crazy, wild creature outside.  After researching on WebM.D., (which you should never do), I had convinced myself that not only did my cat have rabies, but that I might have gotten it.  You are supposed to take the animal to the vet to confirm rabies.  After that you would have to go through a painful series of shots to prevent the rabies from killing you.  (My husband's sister had those shots due to an incident with a rabbit, but that's not my story to tell.)  I went out to the porch to locate my cat, only to find an empty spot where she sat and a set of tiny kitty tracks leading away from my house.  I did the only thing an irrational, possibly rabies-infected person could do.  I sent my husband through the neighborhood following the tiny kitty tracks.  Did I mention it had snowed, so you could see the tracks really well.  My husband refused at first, but after going over my research and watching my panic, I managed to plant a seed of doubt.  He must have looked like a crazy person walking through the snow in our neighborhood following cat tracks, but you do crazy things out of love.  He returned with a grim look.  The cat tracks had crossed another cat's path, and he lost the trail.  I was going to die!  At this point, I wrote these really moving letters to each of my toddler children telling them how much I loved them and to live their lives to the fullest.  Now my perfectly sane husband had thought I was being totally ridiculous, but with each insane statement I made or research I had done, he started to feel true panic.  Could his wife have rabies?  Would he have to raise four small children alone?  Needless to say, I did not contract rabies.  As a matter of fact, it was a completely ridiculous situation that I can only account to lack of sleep raising four babies and lack of adult conversation, but it proved a powerful point.  If we listen to things that sound absolutely crazy, we may think there is nothing to it.  But if you keep listening to the garbage, no matter how unlikely it is, you may start to believe it.  The answer- stop the negative talk!  No one wants to spread gossip or lies, but are we willing to stop it?  By simply listening, we open ourselves up to believing things that are simply untrue or exaggerated.  

Have a great week high-heeled warriors!