I was very, very upset to learn recently, that armadillos carry leprosy.  I thought, you have got to be kidding me, nothing can be more fucked up than this.

Armadillos are one foot long, opossum-like animals that have armor over their bodies.  They live in Florida, Louisiana, and Texas.  They don’t bother anybody or anything.  They come out at night and dig around.  They can’t see very well.  They sometimes don’t pay attention to people, other times they run away.  One time I went over and touched one when it was digging, and so did my cat.  My cat didn’t know what to think, it was smaller than my cat, but it could not have cared less that my cat was touching it, it made my cat wary of it.

It turns out, that there are about nine cases of leprosy each year in Florida contracted through people handling armadillos.  In my town growing up, it would have been normal for any kid to have a baby alligator, baby owl, squirrel, raccoon, turtle, rabbit, opossum, or armadillo.  Many families liked animals, they weren’t scared of animals, and they didn’t want their kids to be scared of animals either.

You would have thought that everybody in Florida, Louisiana, and Texas would have known that armadillos carry leprosy.  I can’t believe that not once did I ever hear that mentioned in school, ever see it on TV, or see it in the newspaper.

At least I can let all the poor workers from the South living in Watford City know, because most of the people in Watford City read my blog each week.