Sunday, December 23, 2007

Bats

So... last night I was upstairs getting Owen's PJ's and something seemed like it flew into his closet. I did a little investigation but chalked up to the creeks and cracks of a house built in 1920. Well, today we get home from church and Liam calls for Cathy saying "I need your help!". She goes upstairs and then comes down and says we have a "mouse" up on the valance. Well it was no mouse, it was a bat! Not a real big one (I guess) and now I'm no chiropterologist (one who studies bats) but my scientific knowledge identified it as a common brown bat (Myotis lucifugus). Liam told me he knows more about bats because... he's... BATMAN! Anyway. I got a ice cream pail and the clear top to a tub and after taking pictures, reading How To Catch A Bat in Your House, and contemplating how not to get bit and die of rabies I simply put the pail over him/her (didn't check) and slid the plastic top behind him. I then took him over to a tree line nearby and dropped him off. I felt kind of bad in this bitter cold, but he can't live in my house! So, that was the fun for the day.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Fun times! We had to deal with the flying rat when I lived in Massachusetts. Scared the snot out of us. We thought he flew out of the window, but he came back the next night, so we had to do the whole bucket and screen thing.

You should have seen us. My roommate and I were running around the apartment with shorts on our heads because we had no hats and didn't care to have the bat tangled up in our hair.

Yeah... fun times, indeed.