Best leave the trash panda alone

Yess, but only for a very short time.

I used to be a vet tech, and one day one of our customers brought in a baby fox they found on the side of the road standing by its dead mother (who had been struck by a car). We probably shouldn't have taken it in... but it was adorable... so one of the docs decided the least we could do would be to give it some fluids and find a shelter that would accept it.

It was badly dehydrated and not very responsive the first day, but the next day it was awake and friendly and excited. Again, not a smart idea, but people played with it and held it (myself included; I couldn't pass of the opportunity to hold a baby fox). Its behavior was very much like a kitten's, and, as such, it liked to nip at people's fingers and arms.

OK, so, we hold on to it a few more days, when suddenly it starts having seizures. One of the docs became worried and decided to send it for rabies testing (which involves cutting the fox's head off, so, yeah, that happened). Boom: positive for rabies.

Chaos ensued. People were panicking and hysterical. I remember one girl crying and saying "I don't want to be a zombie...". For some reason we were all required to sit in the conference room and watch an old video that detailed the progression of rabies in humans, which was pretty horrifying and certainly didn't help the situation. My friend and I stared at each other from across the room with shit-eating grins on our faces repeatedly mouthing "what...the...fuck."

But the worst that came of it was that we all had to get a painful series of rabies vaccines, two at once, and then one a week for four more weeks. Good times.

I've been looking for an excuse to tell this story.

/r/instant_regret Thread Parent Link - i.imgur.com