Some people worry about snakes in their plumbing. Others obsess over potential spiders lurking behind the shower curtain. But every so often, reality serves up a scenario so unsettling, the mind reels at its mundane cruelty: discovering a live bat in your toilet. Yes, this happened recently—and if you’re still reading, congratulations on your iron constitution.
When Life Becomes a Horror Movie, Featuring Your Own Bathroom
In an account that would make even seasoned pest control experts shudder, Alison Doyle (known to her TikTok followers as @tismpump) faced the kind of moment that bonds internet strangers in shared revulsion. Coverage from NewsNation recounts Doyle’s shriek-laden encounter with a baby bat in her apartment bathroom; her reaction, complete with a hastily slammed toilet seat, was both understandable and oddly relatable for anyone who’s ever questioned the safety of indoor plumbing.
What followed was a whirlwind not just of online attention—millions of views and a flood of advice—but also of medical anxiety. Through interviews relayed in NewsNation’s reporting, Doyle describes how she landed in an ER after being advised by “like 100 people” online to consider a rabies shot. She candidly explained to medical staff the additional stress the incident caused due to her autism, underscoring just how overwhelming a viral scare can become when neurodiversity is in the mix. According to comments Doyle made that NewsNation highlights, her reassurances about the “extremely low” odds of contracting rabies were met with the sobering fact that untreated rabies, on the off chance you contract it, has a fatality rate that’s “wildly high.”
Taking all of this into account, medical professionals decided on starting Doyle on rabies post-exposure prophylaxis, as detailed in the outlet’s account. The fate of the bat—flushed away in a follow-up TikTok, as further described in the report—was both practical and, frankly, one last macabre twist to an already surreal afternoon.
Stranger Than Flush-Tales
While rare, bats making their way into bathrooms isn’t unheard of; urban critter experts and amateur historians alike can usually dig up a few unsettling stories. A combination of accessible pipes, the peculiarities of city wildlife, and a dash of bad luck can transform a perfectly average day into an experience you’ll be retelling at parties for decades—assuming you’re ever able to laugh about it. Most bats are solitary and prefer to steer clear of people, but on occasion, our built environments and their persistence align in ways that beggar belief.
Equally fascinating is the way online spaces amplify and dissect these incidents. NewsNation points out how Doyle’s TikTok became an impromptu arena for armchair experts and sympathetic viewers to debate public health, rabies risk, and plumbing woes. In the era of social media, even deeply private domestic moments can be swallowed up and reinterpreted by the crowd—sometimes helpfully, sometimes not.
Reflection: Domestic Dread, Internet Solidarity
Stumbling across a bat in your toilet sits comfortably in the pantheon of “it could only happen to someone else, right?” moments. But stories like this prove that sometimes, bizarre meets everyday with very little warning. One minute you’re going about your ordinary business, the next you’re on a crash course in zoonotic disease mitigation—all delivered with real-time commentary from millions of strangers.
Within its recounting, NewsNation never veers into exaggeration, letting the quiet horror of Doyle’s experience speak for itself. And woven through the coverage is a reminder: Doyle used her platform not only to chronicle her ordeal but to spotlight the added anxiety of managing health crises as an autistic individual, all while under the glare of internet virality.
In a world that gets stranger by the day, perhaps the scariest monsters aren’t imaginary. Sometimes, it’s just a bat where you least expect it. Are you double-checking your plumbing right now, or reassuring yourself this only happens to “other people”? Either way, it’s a sharp reminder of how narrow the line can be between the boringly routine and the utterly absurd.
