the truth about werewolves
Amoung the oldest superstitions practiced by ancient cultures was the warning to never drink from a pool frequented by wolves. Nor did our ancestors scavenge from any game animal-say, a deer or an elk-which had been felled by a pack of wolves. Either of these transgressions-or simply being bitten by a wolf-it is believed would transform one into a legendary half-human, half-canine monster, bloodthirsty and savage: a werewolf.
In the same manner that Old Testament prohibitions against eating pork and shellfish no doubt saved ancients from a miserable death by trichinosis or salmonella, these early wolf superstitions warned them away from any trace of saliva most likely to carry the Lyssavirus, a genus of morphologically similar, negetive-stranded RNA viruses historically infecting mammal reservoirs worldwide.
(That would be rabies, kids.)
Upon contracting the virus, the typical subject will experience a tingling sensation at the site of the exposure, the bite or scracth. If the infection occurs via mucous membrane, that initial site will become hypersensitive. In the even of transmission through oral-genital contact, as appears to be the case with the Rant serotype, the hallmark tingling sensation affecting the genital and perigenital region is reported to be not altogether unpleasant. This pleasureable condition might account for the epidemic's rapid, almost lightning, transmission rate through the population.
-from Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey by Chuck Palahniuk
there's much more fun where that came from. we'll see how bored i remain while at work. i know some of you must be as bored as i am!