Late at night, in quest of a gnat
Swooping and swirling, in came a bat
Four gleaming eyes in two black cats
Followed avidly the sweeping swooping bat.


Now, you’d think, that the cats would be interested in catching the bat. Oh, no. Not my two cats.

Luckily, I have experience with bats. (Yeah, yeah, bats in my belfry.) My mother’s attic was used as a nursery for years. And some of the bats would manage to squeeze through a loose screen.

Unfortunately, my current abode is singularly lacking in bat-ridding tools. Tennis rackets? Nope. Net? Nope. Lax stick? Nix.

I grab the most likely tool to do the job: A big broom.

The bat is doing figure eights all over the living room and dining room, coming incredibly close to the open door. If only I could shoo him at the right minute!

Twenty minutes of swooping bat leave me frustrated and freaked. The bat is probably getting pretty nutty too. The cats…. Well, they left through the open door.

Oh, what the heck. I open the screens and go to bed having successfully limited the bat’s in-house flight range to the dining room and living room.

Was my night peaceful? Don’t bet on it.

First the little girl wakes at 2, and stays awake till 3. At 3:30 I awake to the horrible caterwauling of a baby being starved to death. Since this was coming from outside, and neither my neighbors nor I have an infant, I figured it was my little cat cornered. Sure enough, the beautiful female calico had him cornered, and he was panicked, and couldn’t make it around back to the house to come in.

While I’m up, I figure, what the heck. I might as well check for the bat. Good news. No bat zooming around. That means the bat is either gone or asleep, and I don’t care much which. So, I close the screens and the front door, and retire to my bed.

Only to be woken again at 4:30. My sister-in-law with her husband, and my mother and her husband dropped by with birthday presents after being at a carnival. They made iced tea and eat cookies and glibly apologized for the late hour.

At 5:15 as the rain starts to pour down, and the garbage truck is due at any minute, I figure out my early morning guests were a dream.

At 7:00, I haul my rear out of bed, wake the kids and go into emergency mode.

I still have no idea where the bat is. Probably getting some serious upside-down shut eye behind my blinds.

Life is good. Summer nights are awesome.

Have you considered a career as a writer, or at least as a humorist!
I needed a good laugh this morning.
And I had a bat in the house in college, but the cat cornered it - not something I want to deal with again.

I hope your day is going better.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Summer nights are awesome.
</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Brooms, Bats, Black cats in the dead of night.

Sounds more like Halloween than a summer night.

Sounds a lot more exciting than your windshield wiper episode. Hope you had fun <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="images/icons/grin.gif" />

WIWH, Thank you for reminding me! I'd forgotten the windshield wiper episode.

Since this didn't involve any damage... only a bunch of spilled blueberries, I found the whole thing rather funny even at the time.

So you thought you were going batty?

A friend from church recently had a sugar glider get into her house in the middle of the night.

Maybe you two should compare stories.

Best way to removes bats

Open window, screen and pull up blinds of windows in room where bats are. Make sure window is unobstructed by curtains.

Close off room where bat is and turn off all lights in that room

go outside and turn on all lights. Insects are attracted to the lights and the bats will fly out the window in search of the insects.

Works every time..go shut the window and return to life as usual

No chasing screeming or batting..no brooms or hair spray needed

P.S. Takes about 5 minutes to complete this project

<small>[ July 12, 2004, 11:43 PM: Message edited by: sunrise1 ]</small>

What an exciting night you had. I hope you keep a journal. This will be a memory to keep you laughing for years!

Hopefully your batty friend escaped through the open screens and you can have a peaceful night tonight.

Take care and God bless!
K