Why warm blooded animals are affected by rabies?

Rabies is, as you could guess, a paricularly horrible disease. The scientific Word for rabies is hydrophobia, or the fear of water. When the case is found in humans, they first fear the sight of water, including their own spit and worse. As the conditions worsen, the person/animal loses all of their appetite. They start to halucinate terrible things after this. Death folows soon after. The cases in humans are found from animal, (mostly dog,) bites.