I'm enjoying a quiet night at home. Laying on the couch, I suddenly hear Delilah start to meow. Delilah doesn't really meow that much, so I look to see where she is. She's at the closed window, behind the curtain. She sees a squirrel or something outside, I think. So, being the nice mom that I am, I open the curtains and the window so that she can have a better view.
I go warm up a cinnamon roll for dessert. I come back, put my plate on the table, and notice that both Belle and Delilah are starting at the ceiling. Ok, maybe it's a bug she saw, since they often stare at the walls/ceiling when there is a bug to be stalked. No big deal, I'm OK with bugs as long as they are not near me (or I see them and they have a lot of legs).
I look up to see if I can see the bug. Suddenly, I see something small and black move near the curtain rod. It looks a little rodent like. I'm starting to get a little scared, more so that I want to get the cats away from whatever it is. I figure maybe a mole or something (I've been told a mole on the ceiling is a ridiculous thought, but what do I know?) climbed in through a small hole in the screen. Now, normally unidentified rodents would frighten me, but I figure it's at the top of the curtain, it's not going to hurt me too much before we catch it.
So, I start to turn to get my boyfriend, relatively calmly. As I turn, the black, rodent-like thing moves a little more. As I start to call my boyfriend, I realize what is actually in our apartment...this is how it goes:
Denis, there's a BAT IN HERE!!!
By this time, having realized it was a bat when it started fluttering by my head, I am pretty much at the other end of the apartment, near the kitchen where the BF is doing dishes. As he realized what I've said and sees that I (who is shielding my head with my arms and staring at the ceiling) am clearly going to be of no use, starts to take action (meanwhile thinking this is pretty much the neatest thing ever). "Get the cats in the bedrooms," I say. So, he collects each of the cats and gets them in the bedroom, which I'm sure disappoints them greatly, as they think they found a great new toy.
Then, the search for a way to get rid of the bat begins. After looking for a way to capture him, he grabs a broom. Somehow (I wouldn't know, because I wasn't going back in the room), he gets it out onto the screened in porch and shuts the door. "Great," I say..."Now what?". So, off he goes to the porch to take one of the screens out to release it back outside. Now, the thing is, these aren't really screens that are made to be taken off. They are attached by 4 little hook and eye locks, which at one point I'm sure opened, but have been painted (and therefore sealed together) over at least twice.
So, I watch through the windows on the doors as my boyfriend dodges the bat, which is flying in circles around his head, not happy to be trapped in a 10x10 area. After some struggling, the screen comes loose and the BF "brooms" the bat out the opening in a few tries. Screen goes back on, and all is good in the world again.
Now, I'm sure there are some folks out there that are used to this type of occurance. However, I have never seen a bat, let alone found one flying around in my house. I was thoroughly disturbed by the whole thing, so much so that I couldn't really eat my cinnamon roll, which I had been looking forward to for quite some time!
I don't know how it got in, and I'm not sure I want to know. The expected culprit is the attic. However, no one has been up in the attic since this morning. Which means that this bat would have been hiding out in the house all day. Needless to say, this doesn't make me feel any better. I won't be going up in the attic alone anytime soon.
Wow...that was a long description on my 5 minute ordeal this evening. I'm hoping for no repeats anytime soon. The cats, however, welcome any flying rodents to come play.
I go warm up a cinnamon roll for dessert. I come back, put my plate on the table, and notice that both Belle and Delilah are starting at the ceiling. Ok, maybe it's a bug she saw, since they often stare at the walls/ceiling when there is a bug to be stalked. No big deal, I'm OK with bugs as long as they are not near me (or I see them and they have a lot of legs).
I look up to see if I can see the bug. Suddenly, I see something small and black move near the curtain rod. It looks a little rodent like. I'm starting to get a little scared, more so that I want to get the cats away from whatever it is. I figure maybe a mole or something (I've been told a mole on the ceiling is a ridiculous thought, but what do I know?) climbed in through a small hole in the screen. Now, normally unidentified rodents would frighten me, but I figure it's at the top of the curtain, it's not going to hurt me too much before we catch it.
So, I start to turn to get my boyfriend, relatively calmly. As I turn, the black, rodent-like thing moves a little more. As I start to call my boyfriend, I realize what is actually in our apartment...this is how it goes:
Denis, there's a BAT IN HERE!!!
By this time, having realized it was a bat when it started fluttering by my head, I am pretty much at the other end of the apartment, near the kitchen where the BF is doing dishes. As he realized what I've said and sees that I (who is shielding my head with my arms and staring at the ceiling) am clearly going to be of no use, starts to take action (meanwhile thinking this is pretty much the neatest thing ever). "Get the cats in the bedrooms," I say. So, he collects each of the cats and gets them in the bedroom, which I'm sure disappoints them greatly, as they think they found a great new toy.
Then, the search for a way to get rid of the bat begins. After looking for a way to capture him, he grabs a broom. Somehow (I wouldn't know, because I wasn't going back in the room), he gets it out onto the screened in porch and shuts the door. "Great," I say..."Now what?". So, off he goes to the porch to take one of the screens out to release it back outside. Now, the thing is, these aren't really screens that are made to be taken off. They are attached by 4 little hook and eye locks, which at one point I'm sure opened, but have been painted (and therefore sealed together) over at least twice.
So, I watch through the windows on the doors as my boyfriend dodges the bat, which is flying in circles around his head, not happy to be trapped in a 10x10 area. After some struggling, the screen comes loose and the BF "brooms" the bat out the opening in a few tries. Screen goes back on, and all is good in the world again.
Now, I'm sure there are some folks out there that are used to this type of occurance. However, I have never seen a bat, let alone found one flying around in my house. I was thoroughly disturbed by the whole thing, so much so that I couldn't really eat my cinnamon roll, which I had been looking forward to for quite some time!
I don't know how it got in, and I'm not sure I want to know. The expected culprit is the attic. However, no one has been up in the attic since this morning. Which means that this bat would have been hiding out in the house all day. Needless to say, this doesn't make me feel any better. I won't be going up in the attic alone anytime soon.
Wow...that was a long description on my 5 minute ordeal this evening. I'm hoping for no repeats anytime soon. The cats, however, welcome any flying rodents to come play.