Harvies?

About a year ago Snickers brought a paper home from school for sign-up to boy scouts. It seemed like something he would be interested in, but when I asked he immediately said no, he was not interested. I asked him a few more times over the next week or so and always got the same response. Then one day I thought to ask him why he wasn't interested.

Snickers: Because harvies.
Me: Harvies? What's that?
Snickers: You know, if you go camping you might get bit by a wild animal and get harvies, or something like that.
Me: Rabies?
Snickers: Oh yeah. That's it. I don't want to get rabies.

Pretty good reason I suppose. Maybe not entirely accurate, but at least it's a solid reason. I had to explain that it would probably be a while before camping even came up and that most boy scouts don't get rabies when they go camping. In fact, I've never heard of even one although I suppose it may have happened at some point in the history of boy scouting. (If I'm wrong and some huge percentage of boy scouts get harvies rabies while camping, let me know so I can let him know he's right and ban him from boy scouts for life in case he changes his mind.)

Despite my reassurances, he still didn't want to join boy scouts. I think is has more to do with stepping out of his comfort zone and doing something new than it has to do with fear of contracting a disease from wild creatures in the dark woods. But then again, I could be wrong. He does tend to avoid 'icky' things and on a scale of 1 - 10 a diseased wild animal, frothing at the mouth and passing on deadly germs is right up there.


Quack!