Batty

[krpalmer]

Rustling in the bedroom curtains woke me in the middle of the night. When the sound wouldn't go away, I started formulating an idea of just what it was and just how I'd have to respond, and at last, if with some reluctance, I snapped on the bedside light, got out of bed, and rattled the curtains. A bat popped out and started zooming around the room in wide circuits.

Imagining a flying mammal going for your face isn't encouraging, but a bat had once got into my place before (not this year, anyway), if early enough in the evening I'd shut it in the room I first found it in and searched the phone book for animal control services. The first person I'd called suggested I throw a towel over the bat and get it outside while wrapped up, and that had worked. As I got a towel out of the linen closet this time, though, a bat that wouldn't land and would only occasionally touch down on the ceiling or something on the wall wasn't easy to throw a towel on.

My seeming to keep the bat moving, though, did seem to slow it down after a while, and at last when I shoved the towel up at the ceiling the bat didn't rustle out from one side and start flying again. Pretty sure it was still in the bundle, I rushed downstairs, got the front door open, and shook the towel out. I couldn't quite say I saw the bat escape into the night air, but when I threw the towel into my laundry basket to be washed and clambered back into bed there was no more rustling.

I still can't say how the bat got in anyway this time either, though; none of my screened windows were open, for one thing. Some searching in upstairs closet and crannies after getting back from work didn't turn up any obviously gnawed holes down from the attic. I was tired enough today, however, that I do wonder about being able to sleep through a bit more tonight. Given the worries these days about fungal infections, there might be something a little encouraging about a bat population in the area.

Comments

[the_rck]

If you're in the continental US, the CDC recommends treatment for rabies for anyone who wakes in a room with a bat and no way to be absolutely certain that the bat didn't touch them.

https://www.cdc.gov/rabies/exposure/animals/bats.html

[krpalmer]

I went to see a doctor about this today, who passed what had happened on to my region's health department. The health department then hand-delivered a letter to my door recommending I get rabies shots, so I suppose that's what I'll be doing in the next few days.

[the_rck]

I’m sorry. I was hoping you wouldn’t need that. I just thought I’d better mention it. I only know because someone told us when we expecting our daughter. I can’t remember if it was a parenting class or the local parenting Yahoo list. I was 36 when my daughter was born, and nobody’d ever mentioned it before that.