Adventures with Wildlife

Oh my! We do have an unusually high number of brushes with non-domesticated animals, given that we live less than a mile from a major highway and a university. We’ve had to deal with a bat in the den, a snake in the kitchen, and possums in traps. (Sophia still loves to tell people about the time the snake was in the kitchen and Mommy screamed, “Oh sweet Jesus!”)

When we realized there was a winged creature flying around our basement this evening, we naturally assumed that a bird had gotten in the house and was trying to find a way out. We might not have even known it was in the house if Valentine hadn’t been down there looking like he was about to pounce on something other than Daisy. Dan was trying to locate the winged creature when I called down to tell him that dinner was ready. he sounded very somber, and I had a feeling it wasn’t because I was trying a new recipe tonight.

“It’s a bat.”

Well naturally, I’m concerned by this because (a) bats can have rabies and (b) aren’t they supposed to be nocturnal? Plus, they have great big wings and make creepy noises.

But Dan and I figured that the bat would more or less stay in the basement, so we decided to forge ahead with dinner and deal with the bat later. Dan went outside to do something (am I the only woman whose husband disappears right before dinner is served?!?!), and I started getting everything on the table. As I was spooning veggies onto the kids plates, I heard a faint flutter followed by a thud. There in the corner of the dining room floor, was the bat. So at this point, I am in total freak out mode, screaming for Dan who can’t hear me because he’s outside, and unable to go get him beause I am afraid that if I move, the bat will move and we won’t be able to find him again.

I yelled for Sophia to go get her dad and, because I have passed on my compulsive behaviors to her trained her right, she was absolutely unable to do so until she got her shoes on because she didn’t want her feet to get dirty. God love her, but I didn’t care about dust between her toes right at that moment. I just kept on screaming, “DAN!” at the top of my lungs. FINALLY he came back in and I told him I’d located the bat, right there! in the corner of the dining room. He and Trevor gathered up bat-trapping materials — which apparently are an old holiday popcorn tin with a lid and a plastic laundry basket.

As Dan is trying to figure out how to slam that big popcorn tin down on top of the bat in that rather cramped corner of the room, Valentine comes in to investigate. He creeps up on his unsuspecting (blind as a bat, you know) prey, and reaches out to tap it with his paw. All you know what broke loose then… the bat took off flying right at Dan’s legs, Dan started screaming and throwing the popcorn tin around, and I went into full panic mode, completely unsure what I should be doing.

But! We were victorious! The popcorn tin was upside down on top of the bat, who was clicking away trying to find a route out of there. So we started looking for a piece of cardboard to slide under it to keep the bat secure in the container. The only problem was, the tin was half on the area rug and half off. And bats really are compact little creatures. They can squeeze through the smallest of spaces.

So, just as I am coming around to the side of the table where the bat/tin are, I notice that the little bugger is laying on the floor, pretty much outside of the tin. I screamed, “He’s out! ThebatisoutofthetinDan!” and just about that time the bat set off flying. In my direction. I ran into the living room, screaming like a ninny, hands over my hair and stooped half over, running in circles as the bat followed me. Dan yelled at me to go in the den and he certainly didn’t need to tell me twice.

After I was in the den with Sophia (who was scared and crying because everyone in the house was freaking out at this point), Dan chased the bat into Sophia’s room. He asked if Daisy’s rabies shot was current and I told him that both of the cats had just had their rabies shots. Deciding that Valentine was more likely to catch something than my old fat cat, he put Valentine in there while we ate dinner.

Afterwards, Sophia and I stayed in the bathroom while “the boys” took care of making the house bat free. They caught it rather quickly this time, in a GladWare container that I said I did NOT want to have back, and set it free a few miles from here. Hopefully we will be extra careful about leaving the door open in the future, because I really do not want to see any more bats.

And I am just praying that this will not be one of those nights when Valentine decides to sleep on my pillow and play with my hair while I’m sleeping. If he does, I might never get back to sleep. [shudder]