Last year we discovered that we had bats flying around in our house at night and that it had likely been going on for months. We had no way of knowing whether or not they had been in our bedroom. Out of abundance of caution, we called our local health department and told them what was going on. The health department called our local hospital to schedule our vaccinations. We went to the hospital an hour later and received the initial shot. The subsequent shots were done spread over the course of the following week. The shots were not scary, caused no side effects except for slight pain at the injection site, and we could sleep well knowing we were safe.

Is rabies rare? Yes. But if you believe that you may have had contact with bats, for example, err on the side of caution and go get the prophylactic vaccination.