Bats | 4.17

I have to be honest- when I first read Bat appreciation day- I thought it was for bats- like softball/baseball bats! I must have bats on the brain- since my daughter wants the new LXT bat & it's $400!!!! Yeah, that's not happening! She can appreciate the expensive bat she already has!

Anywhooo... We do have bats around here, but rarely see them. At the inlaws lake cabin we see them sometimes at night, but still pretty rarely. Thank goodness, I've never been up close & personal with them!

 

My aunt and uncle had bats in their attic at various times when I was growing up. And, my grandpa's sister sometimes had a bat in the attic as well. I don't remember that either really bothered them by getting into the actual living areas of the house.

Both homes were older homes probably built in the early 1900's. And, both had 3 stories with the 3rd floor being the attic. And, they were in different towns, both in Ohio though.

 

When I lived up on Long Island in NY way back when, my friend had one dead on her driveway. I know we had to be very careful getting rid of it.. not fond of bats, for sure.

 

Oh gosh. I've had a couple of up close and personal experiences with bats. {shudders} In my old house I had them get in the house twice and would just silently fly by me while I was in the living room. Eek! One time I was able to just open the front door and it just flew out. The other time my hubby (boyfriend at the time) caught it with a pillowcase and moved it outside. When I was a kid my grandparents had bats in their basement/garage and they send us out there to get stuff for them and I never ran so fast in my life. So while I appreciate them eating the bugs and stuff... I'd also appreciate it if they never came inside a house that I am in again. Ha!

 

We live in the country and do have bats in the area. I am 1000% scared of them, it's a true phobia for me, so have never looked at one close up ... if I'd get that close I'd be passed out anyways! LOLOL!

 

I didn't even know Bat Appreciation Day existed when I was creating this layout yesterday morning, about a bat I met on Saturday morning! Wow! I thought it was just a bad day for the bat and an exciting educational experience for me.


I had gone out to the backyard to rake and bag leaves when I looked down and saw this furry little pillow-shaped thing. It was so still, I thought it was dead. I carefully stroked it with a stick and discovered it was actually alive. It opened its little mouth wide, showing me all its tiny pointy teeth, and extended its left wing. I couldn't see any injury but assumed it must be severely injured because it made no attempt to fly or even scoot away.

None of the rehab numbers I called returned my call so finally I called animal control, after someone told me they might take it to a rehab place. But when the officer picked up the bat by its backend, it twisted about vigorously and squeaked very angrily, and, he said, seemed perfectly normal. He explained that bats become disoriented if they find themselves still out when the sun rises. They'll refuse to fly. He released it in the woods behind behind my house and patiently shared his bat knowledge with me.

I found it fascinating, and I'm so glad I was able to help. When we were done raking, I had covered the bat with the huge plastic rake, giving it shelter, somewhat like a cave. When I went out to check on it, it had scooted itself under the shadiest part of the rake, which I took as gratitude for its shelter. I could have just left it there and not bothered animal control officers, and I'll remember that if this happens again. But if I hadn't had them come out, I wouldn't have had the bat education and would have thought it was eaten by a predator instead of flew away once the sun set.

This is the only experience I've had with a bat other than maybe seeing them fly far above me in the sky. I say maybe because I wasn't sure whether I was seeing bats or birds those times.

 

@michelepixels What a great story, Michele!! The timing IS uncanny, lol!
I've had a few times when bats flew inside the house- different places. Not too hard to get them out. We don't see them often here in the Pee Dee, but we did Upstate SC. at sundown. Of course we saw them when we went caving in KY. That was a little freaky- but we were invading THEIR space.

 

There is NO "Bat Appreciation Day" for me!! We had a bat in our house once. I bent over to pick up a towel that had been dropped on our floor and there was a "little vampire" looking up at me!!! NO thank you!!!!

 

We have bats around here. They fly around in the evenings during different times of the year.

About a year ago my husband was getting a tarp out of our crawl space and a bat fell out of the tarp. It was stunned. He picked it up (he was wearing gloves) and came and showed us. That thing was scary. We saw its teeth close up and it sort of hissed at us!

 

They look like puppies when babies, but with wings. Look at this cutie:

 

I don't have anything against bats per se, but I admit that I worry about the diseases they carry. For that reason, I avoid them.