On Sunday evening, a bat somehow got into our house. We don't know how as no one had set foot outside all weekend long but nonetheless, there was suddenly a very confused bat circling our living room. Strangely, this did not particularly seem to unnerve any of us. I continued my job search on the PC, my lovely wife was a bit bemused. We woke the boy to inform him and he simply rolled over and continued sleeping. The dog ignored the flying rodent and only one of the three cats showed any interest...and not much at that.
Between 10 PM and 1 AM, several attempts were made at herding the poor, scared thing out the front or back door. Eventually it disappeared for a couple of hours and I finally fell asleep on the downstairs couch...with the lights on (naturally).
There was no sign of der fledermaus on Monday and it was concluded that it had exited just as mysteriously as it had entered. Then, after my wife had ascended to bed, I heard something bumping against the Library doors and there "she" was again. I say "she" because my perhaps-overly sympathetic wife had by then taken to referring to her as "Baby." At rest she was the size of the tiniest mouse but in flight she had a wingspan of about 9 inches. Throughout the course of the evening--usually just as I was attempting to concentrate on something important--she would turn up and we would begin anew the attempts to herd her outside. The last time we saw her early this morning she had flown up into the highest shelves of a high, not easily accessable closet. It was nearly 4 when I fell asleep...again on the downstairs couch...again with the lights all on.
Tonight the bat came out early in the Library. I turned on the lights and it thought it was daylight and so roosted on the top of the highest windowsill. I took a collapsable laundry bag and climbed a ladder up after I knew it was asleep. With the help of my animal-friendly wife, I attempted to gently coax it in but that didn't work as planned. Soon enough it became a noisy fight in which I almost knocked over the ladder and pulled down the curtains! Eventually we succeeded, though, and the bat fell into the bag. I then collapsed the bag and took it out into the darkness of the back yard. By that point the undoubtedly confused l'il bat had attached itself to the mesh of the bag and would not let go! It took me another few minutes to convince the thing it could fly free and finally go grab some dinner! It didn't even say goodbye when it figured it out and flew away. SNIFF! And after all we'd been through these last few days...
Between 10 PM and 1 AM, several attempts were made at herding the poor, scared thing out the front or back door. Eventually it disappeared for a couple of hours and I finally fell asleep on the downstairs couch...with the lights on (naturally).
There was no sign of der fledermaus on Monday and it was concluded that it had exited just as mysteriously as it had entered. Then, after my wife had ascended to bed, I heard something bumping against the Library doors and there "she" was again. I say "she" because my perhaps-overly sympathetic wife had by then taken to referring to her as "Baby." At rest she was the size of the tiniest mouse but in flight she had a wingspan of about 9 inches. Throughout the course of the evening--usually just as I was attempting to concentrate on something important--she would turn up and we would begin anew the attempts to herd her outside. The last time we saw her early this morning she had flown up into the highest shelves of a high, not easily accessable closet. It was nearly 4 when I fell asleep...again on the downstairs couch...again with the lights all on.
Tonight the bat came out early in the Library. I turned on the lights and it thought it was daylight and so roosted on the top of the highest windowsill. I took a collapsable laundry bag and climbed a ladder up after I knew it was asleep. With the help of my animal-friendly wife, I attempted to gently coax it in but that didn't work as planned. Soon enough it became a noisy fight in which I almost knocked over the ladder and pulled down the curtains! Eventually we succeeded, though, and the bat fell into the bag. I then collapsed the bag and took it out into the darkness of the back yard. By that point the undoubtedly confused l'il bat had attached itself to the mesh of the bag and would not let go! It took me another few minutes to convince the thing it could fly free and finally go grab some dinner! It didn't even say goodbye when it figured it out and flew away. SNIFF! And after all we'd been through these last few days...
The appropriate GARFIELD cartoon above was provided by the lovely and talented Ms. Lisa, proprietess of
http://lisa-mynx.blogspot.com/ Thanx for keeping me company between rounds with "Baby" these last couple nights, Lis!
I think you will miss the bat tonight...and even leave the vacancy sign lit so she can find her way 'home'.
ReplyDelete