Sunday 2 October 2011

There's a Bat in the House!

Last night I was sitting sipping wine and watching TV when I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye.  My kitchen has a glass pane above the door and the light was on, and there was a bat circling round and round in there!  I'm not sure how it got in, the window wasn't open, the only thing I can think of is that it crawled up the extractor shaft which has partially come away from the wall.

Now what to do?  I am aware that bats carry disease, that can be very harmful to humans and animals, especially rabies, so I didn't want it to get near my dogs (we don't vaccinate against rabies in the UK because it isn't a canine problem here due to strict quarantine laws) or worse still IN one of my dogs!  So I decided to just leave it for the night and hope it would go out the way it came in.

Next morning I left the dogs in the cage in the bedroom where they sleep, shut all the doors and gingerly ventured into the kitchen.  Don't know what I expected, to be dive bombed by a tiny bat or something LOL?  I looked round and there was no sign of it, methinks it must have gone out again, but I left the boys in their cage just in case it appeared out of nowhere again.  Then, as I was making my breakfast, again I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye, the bat was in a small, partially filled watering can on top of the fridge!

Mmmm, what to do once more.  I looked into the can and the poor little bat was floating on the top of the water, delicate, paper thin wings spread out so it didn't sink, it had a furry little head.  I had to rescue it God knows how long it had been in there.  But I didn't want to handle it, as I could get bitten and it would stress the tiny creature out even more.  I got a strong cardboard box I had, made a few air holes in it and put it on the worktop.  Then, knowing the bat would not be able take flight from the can I poured some of the water out, then when there was only a little left in tipped it and the bat into the box.  The bat was in a sorry state and just laid there in a sodden heap, I thought it was dead.  I took the box outside and , as it was raining lightly, (yes the Indian Summer is gone!) I half opened the flaps at the top so that there was shelter for the bat, yet it could easily fly off if it wanted to.

A few hours later I peeked in, the bat was still there, but looking much better all dried out and in a bat position not a heap like it had been.  At dusk I peeped in again, and was pleased to see the little fellow was gone.  I was chuffed that the escapade had a happy ending!

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