It's National Wildlife Day. Cats Are the Most Commonly Reported Rabid Pet in America — and the Wildlife Comes to Them.
Cats account for 200 to 300 reported rabies cases a year, more than any other domestic animal in the US. Most of them never went looking for it — a bat got into the house.
Today is National Wildlife Day, which lands on September 4 every year and is mostly about conservation and habitat [1]. There's a version of it that applies to your living room, though, and late summer into early fall is exactly when it shows up.
Here is the number that surprises people: cats are the most frequently reported rabid domestic animal in the United States, at roughly 200 to 300 reports each year [2]. In the 2023 national surveillance report, 222 rabid cats were confirmed, out of 309 rabid domestic animals overall [3].
Almost none of those cats went out looking for rabies.
The bat comes to you
In 2023, US laboratories confirmed 3,760 animal rabies cases from 89,530 samples. Bats accounted for 1,298 of them — the single largest group, ahead of raccoons at 1,085. Wildlife made up 91.8% of all positive cases; domestic animals were 8.2% [3]. The CDC puts it simply: bats are the most reported rabid animal in the US, and most people in this country who pass away from rabies were exposed to a rabid bat [4].
Bats are also the one rabies vector that routinely gets inside. They come down a chimney, through a gap under a soffit, through a torn screen or an attic hatch. And a bat on the floor of a bedroom at two in the morning is, to a cat, the best thing that has ever happened.
This is why "she's an indoor cat" is a weaker defense than it sounds. Indoors is where the bat is.
The vaccine date does most of the work
The gap between outcomes here is wide, and it's decided months before anything happens, by whether the rabies vaccine is current.
If an exposed dog or cat is up to date, the CDC recommendation is an immediate booster, then owner supervision and monitoring for signs of rabies for 45 days, at home [5].
If the animal has never been vaccinated, the recommendation is euthanasia — because no licensed product can guarantee the animal won't develop rabies. If the owner declines, the alternative is immediate vaccination plus a strict four-month quarantine in a secure facility where no person or animal can be exposed [5].
If the animal is overdue, it's assessed case by case by public health and animal health officials, weighing how long the lapse ran and how severe the exposure was. Many overdue animals can be boostered and managed like a current one, sometimes with bloodwork to confirm an adequate immune response [5].
Same cat. Same bat. Two very different months, separated by a date on a certificate.
If a bat gets in
- Confine your pets first, in a closed room away from the bat. That single step is often what keeps this from becoming an exposure at all.
- Don't release the bat if there was any contact with a person or an animal. Contact your local health department — a bat that can be tested settles the question, and a bat that flew out the window leaves everyone guessing.
- Assume contact if you can't rule it out. Bat teeth are small and a bite can leave almost nothing to see, which is why any physical contact with a pet is treated as an exposure.
- Call your vet and your health department the same day, even for a cat who looks completely fine. Rabies has no useful early tell, and the clock on boosters and quarantines starts at exposure.
For sealing bats out of a house, the CDC's approach is to watch at dusk to find the exit holes, hang plastic sheeting or bird netting loosely over them so bats can leave but can't return, and seal once they've gone. Don't seal between May and August, when flightless pups may still be inside [4].
The part that generalizes
The Cecil County, Maryland outbreak in August 2024 started with one aggressive feral cat that bit or scratched two people at a hotel. Health officials initially had to consider 309 potentially exposed guests and staff; after investigation, three people were confirmed exposed and all three received post-exposure treatment. No one developed rabies [2].
That's a well-run response to a situation that began with a single unvaccinated cat and some wildlife. Most of the work in your own house is smaller than that: keep the vaccine current, know where the gaps in the roofline are, and make the call the same day rather than the next week.