During my career, two significant events occurred as initial experiences with the epidemiology of rabies and how those were shaped by the interplay of science, emotion, and politics. The first was a case of human rabies in West Virginia. Although the patient did not survive, the investigation involved determining the likely exposure, any additional exposures among the public and healthcare workers, and opportunities for future prevention. The second was a single rabid kitten in New Hampshire that resulted in 665 people receiving rabies postexposure prophylaxis. There were no human deaths, but this was an opportunity to study the adverse event profile of rabies biologics and assess the application of rabies prevention guidance. Although these were very different scenarios, commonalities were highlighted as educational opportunities, especially for a budding epidemiologist within the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service.