When I first found out I might be interviewing a man who was bitten by a skunk that tested positive for rabies, I have to admit I was a little nervous.
Would he be contagious? Any chance I could get the disease?
After doing a little research, I found out no, it’s not contagious at this point. Because he got quick treatment, he doesn’t actually have rabies. (He needs to get a series of shots — and not in the stomach, like in years past — and he’ll be totally cured.)
When I met him at his door, he looked totally normal. He was joking with other family members about his misadventure with the skunk.
I promised not to use his name, or show his face in the story, because he says he is too embarrassed about what happened.
He was out walking his dog very early on Tuesday morning when he noticed the skunk. To make a long story short, the skunk ended up biting him on the foot. He killed the animal with some nearby rocks, bagged it up, and rushed to the hospital.
Health experts later tested the skunk and determined it had rabies.
The man will be fine as long as he continues his series of shots. And in the meantime, he will live a normal life.
He joked that he learned his lesson about staying away from wild animals. It’s a good lesson for others as well.
And by the way, one footnote to the story which I forgot to mention on TV… The skunk never sprayed him. Perhaps because the skunk was in the advanced stages of rabies and wasn’t able to defend itself as it otherwise would.
Gordon Gabs 
Sounds like someone should have had a V8 Juice. Everyone knows skunks are foul smelling rodents….why then would you let it get anywhere within spraying distance much less, biting distance??? He was bound to walk away with something. Which is worse, the rabies or the foul stinch? I hope to NEVER find out. Best wishes to the victim and may you have a speedy recovery.
Peg asked the exact same thing I first thought of. How does someone allow a skunk to just walk up to them? And if he was walking his dog, how does the dog allow the skunk to just walk up to him? My dog would have been going nuts at the first sight of the skunk and it wouldn’t have gotten within 100 feet of me. The story sounds pretty flimsy. If anything, he probably came upon the skunk lying in a ditch on the side of the road, appearing to be dead because it was in it’s final stage of the rabies, he kicks it with foot to check if it’s dead,(cause that’s what all guys do) and the skunk musters up enough strength at the last second to take a bite at his foot. His story states the skunk was walking up the road past him when got bit. Think about it, once the skunk would have bitten him, it would have run away (they’re pretty quick). How would he have had time to go and pick up rocks and kill it? If you entertain my theory, he wouldn’t have had to run after it because the skunk would have still been half-dead in the ditch where it would have been easy to have dropped a big rock on it.
Hey Gordon, can you at least tell me what subdivision it was at or near?