Bats!!!

One summer evening I received an emergency phone call from my girl friend (now my wife). She was very upset. She swore she saw a bat in her parent’s basement, but no one would believe her—that’s why it was an emergency. She needed someone to believe!!! I promised to come over after dinner.

I went straight to the basement when I got there. I searched and searched. Nothing! She wasn’t happy, but what more could I do? We sat on a couch (with the light off) in the basement to visit for a while--her mom was right around the corner doing laundry (under a very bright light). GF couldn’t talk about anything except the bat. I told her I believed her, but I just didn’t see it.

Then she thought she heard something in the furnace room. Her imagination was getting the best of her. That door was shut. A bat couldn’t have flown in there. To make her happy, I threw the door open and turned on the light. Before I could say, “See, there’s nothing in there”, I realized there was a good sized bat hovering at eye level right in front of me. Of course it immediately swooped towards me!

The bat flew back and forth—always towards me!!! As I bobbed, weaved, and dodged I heard both my GF and her mother screaming, “What should I do? What should I do?” Without taking my eyes off the bat, I told them to stay in the laundry room—under the very bright light. With that crazy bat chasing me, I worked my way around the basement turning on lights until it was completely lit everywhere except one dark, empty room. My plan worked, the bat went in that room and I shut the door.

After we all stopped laughing and caught our breath, we tried to figure out what to do. I voted for one of them to go in and get it. But I lost the vote 2-to-1. Before opening the door I armed myself with a sword and shield (a broom and dust pan). When we opened the door the bat was again just hovering. This time I was ready. I knocked it out of the air with the broom and then caught him between the broom and the dust pan. I took it out to the middle of their yard and threw it up into the air as best I could—then I ran back into the house as fast as I could!!! I didn’t want that crazy bat swooping at me again.

No bats were harmed in creating this little bit of our family history—well, we didn’t find it in the yard the next day at least! LOL

This post was inspired by russ, who recently saw a bat indoors.