screams. I wondered if all the noise would interfere with the bat’s echolocation, causing it to become disoriented and fly into my hair. (Which apparently never happens. But I don’t believe it.) So I shut up.
The bat flew back to the screen and stared at me. I slowly stood up and walked backwards toward the stairs, locking eyes with the bat and praying it wouldn’t interpret that as a sign of aggression. When I reached the top of the stairs I turned and ran as fast as I could down them, slammed the door, and stuffed a towel against the bottom of it.
The next day, after several calls with friends and a trauma counsellor, I ventured back upstairs. The bat was hanging down from the screen, its wings forming a Chiroptera duvet. I cannot believe how cute it looked. And how utterly harmless.
Aww. Happy ending. When we had the bat in our house in Bethesda the bat eventually flew to a window and hung onto the window sill for a while. We all agreed it was cute.
ReplyDeleteThey are in fact adorable. My sister had a bit of a bat infestation. In fact, her wifi server is named Batgirl.
ReplyDeleteMy cousin had a bat encounter in her house...and in the end everyone got rabies shots.
ReplyDeleteI have pet a bat in the wild...
I like that, B.
ReplyDeleteThis summer Rufus helped me find a wounded bat on the edge of our woods. We spent the better part of the afternoon determining that it was perhaps repairable, and then secured it into a nice clean towel, into a box, and off to the rehab folks. It was a lovely little fellow.
ReplyDelete