Bedtime bats

Bats are amazing creatures. They are unable to see and use ecolocation to fly through the sky, they consume many of the pests which plague us during our days. But what happens when one of these little rodents makes its way into your home?

For years of working with animal rescue, I fielded calls of bats in peoples homes, even sent drivers out to capture dormant bats sleeping on the walls and curtains of peoples homes. But never have I actually had one in my home. That is until 11pm last night.

Just as I was heading into bed, I realized I had left a light on, when I turned to go back down the stairs, I saw something fly across the room. Now earlier in the evening, I had been plagued by a large moth, but even from the top of the stairs, I knew that was no moth.

I came around the corner of the stairs to see the little rodent shimmy across the floor and behind the television. Great. So I retreived the broom and tried to formulate an animal rescue plan solo, hoping the little critter never flew at my head.

Turning on all the lights, I leaned over the television, sure it was going to fly at my head. But alas, during the broom retrieval, it relocated to the kitchen counter. Thankfully right on top of a bag waiting to go out to recycling. So I sandwiched the bat between the cheese bag and the broom, covered it with a kitchen towel and shoved a plastic placemat until it all. Just as I was about to lift the sandwich, I realized I had no open doors and placed a bowl of tomatoes on top of the sandwich.

After propping open the back door with two shoes and a watering can, I retrieved the bat sandwich and ran out to the back room, hoping the bat was still lodged inbetween my make shift slices. I then screamed like a little girl and shoved everything outside.

I am happy to report, the bat was unharmed in the sandwich and "happily" flew off into the night sky.

I then laid in bed for 2 hours wondering where the bat originated and hoped I would not wake up with one chewing on my ears in the morning.

Bats, amazing creatures to watch outside nibbling on insects, but certainly not a bedtime adventure I would care to repeat.