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A friend's 18 yo was out in the neighborhood doing some work for another friend, so they came over and double-teamed the bat. The bat was not happy, but he's now in the wild. Somewhere. I don't care where. He didn't look grateful, and the way he was squawking, you would have thought somebody was trying to kill him instead of help him.
Boy, when he spread out his wings, he was a lot bigger than I thought!
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Con-Bat-ulations ! Somewhere there are about a hundred thousand mosquitos that won't be biting you this year....
I'm reminded of my mother-in-law's eulogy, delivered by the Episcopal priest of the church where she had been one of the sextons (along with my father-in-law) for many years. He had the audience laughing with his story of 'Die Fledermaus" that found its way into the church from the belfry, and my mother-in-law running in the pews with a dishcloth covering her hair screeching for her husband... Who came, captured the bat, put it into a container, took it home, and released it into his back yard to 'take care of the damn bugs'. She survived the death camps, but couldn't stand bats..
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If you could translate his squawking, you'd want to wash his mouth out with soap. :-)
When we were kids we used to throw small pebbles up in the air and watch the bats dive after them.
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He went home to tell his tale of narrow escape from death by huge four legged animals.
As tales often get told, you and your neighbors were vanquished.
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I guess Louie was hiding under the bed while all this was going on?
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I'm glad the bat made it out okay. I don't like them darting around my head in my house (our cat brought one in once when I was a kid, and those things can move fast!), but bats are a very useful critter when they stick to the outdoors where they belong.
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More bat trivia: Earlier today I'd left a message with animal control, but the man didn't return my call until after the rescue was done. He still wanted to talk to me and tell me what to do in case I ever find one in the house. Around here, anyone who notices a bat on the wall when they wake up in the morning should call animal control. First, they come out and capture the bat, and then they do a referral to the county health department. Standard procedure is to assume the bat bit a sleeping person. The bites are very small, and many people don't realize they've been bitten unless/until they get sick. The health department arranges for the series of rabies vaccinations.
There was one death of a child a few years ago, after she'd been bitten by a rabid bat. Nobody made a connection until she was already very ill. So far nobody has been able to come up with a reliable way to evaluate how many bats might be infected with rabies, so they assume all are.
More than anybody ever wanted to know, especially me.
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Good story!
I've always liked bats, even more so when I learned they can eat thousands of mosquitoes each night.
When I was a kid, my sadistic younger brother would catch 'em at dusk with a fly fishing rod. I nursed several back to health then set 'em free. They're so tiny (at least the ones snagged in central Alabama) but they never hesitated to make noise & bear their teeth.
