Die Fledermaus

I got a bit of a shock tonight before taking out the garbage. I heard the cats chasing about just outside our bedroom window, but I thought they were fighting/playing with each other. When I came out onto the landing, I was greeted by a large flitting thing avoiding the pursuit of two very interested cats.

A Bat.

Yes, a bat. Not the baseball steroid type thing... But the night time flappy flappy Mouse with wings...

If I was to guess, it was a Little Brown Bat, which is quite common in this part of the country, even in urban settings. On Wednesday of this week, following my Bible Study, we evicted one from the church. In churches, I am used to them. Virtually every church that I have worked for has had bats at one point or another. Wednesday night was no big deal. There was a bat flying around, so we decided to get rid of it. Well... we chose to evict it, because the opportunity presented itself and we could try to shoo the thing outside.

I don't like killing bats, because they are quite helpful in controlling mosquito populations and such... but they do creep people out.

This was the very first time I've ever had a real, live bat in my own home. Like the church, I wasn't really thrilled with the idea of killing a bat... but the challenge was to successful evict it. Unlike a church, there wasn't a large door to shoo it out. So I opened a window, removed the screen, and then used a swiffer broom to keep the thing flying.

Ultimately, it didn't fly out the window... but I got it to flap around so much I tired it out. So it climbed onto the end of my broom thing, so I was able to deliver it to the window and let it return to the night.

Enough excitement for one night, I suppose.