Let me tell you about it.

I went to bed at a reasonable time after having blocked the tangled yoke cardigan.  I was feeling pretty good about myself.  I went to sleep quickly.  Somewhere in the middle of the night, I am awoken by something.  I look at the curtain at the end of my bed, and there seems to be a black blob hanging on it.  I say to myself, surely that can’t be what I think it is….but since I don’t have my glasses on, I really cannot be sure.  I slowly reach out and grab my glasses, and put them on.  When I do, the black blob stretches out its wings just so I can be absolutely sure it is indeed what I think it is.

A bat.

And it chooses this moment to start flying around my room.  I cover my head since it is flying low, and sort of freak out for a moment.  I then reach for the light a couple of times but lose courage.  Then I stop and think a moment, which is a bit tough with a bat flying around your room!  OK, what do I know about bats?  Well, they don’t LIKE light.  And where could this bat have come from?  Probably upstairs, in Bugs room.  The door is open, that would be logical.  OK, if I turn on the light in this room, maybe it will fly out to the living room, and if I strategically turn the lights on maybe I can get it to go back up to Bug’s room, get Bug downstairs to my room, and sequester the bat until the morning.  OK, good, a plan.

I gather my courage to reach out from under the covers and click on the light.  I hear no bat.  I peek out from  under the covers.  No bat.  OK, good, plan seems to be working.  I get out of bed and get dressed, because the thought of chasing a bat in my skivvies just wasn’t doing it for me.  I turn on all the lights one by one downstairs, and see no bat.  OK, perhaps it already made its way upstairs.

I go upstairs and get Bug, and bring her back down to my bed.  She is still sleeping, so all seems well.  I lightly close the door to my room, adrenaline pumping, and try to figure out what to do.  I’ve been carrying a towel around with me in order to throw it over the bat if I see it.  I think some more, but I really can’t think of what to do, and I really don’t know where the bat is.  And since I am by myself, I decide to do the thing that every child wants to do from time to time in their adult life.  I called mom and dad!

Mom sympathizes in a way only a mother can do, and suggests wetting the towel to give it some heft.  Dad doesn’t seem convinced my friend the bat is upstairs.  To be honest, I was so wired I don’t think I remember much of the conversation.  Mom reminded me that if I got bitten I should probably try to save the bat and get it tested.  I really hoped it wouldn’t come to that!

I then crawled into my bed with Bug.  I turned out the lights and closed the doors.  It became apparent to me about half an hour later, that I had “protected” my daughter by bringing her INTO the room with the bat.  I turn on the lights, take Bug upstairs.  By this time Bug is getting somewhat annoyed with me.  She is trying so hard to sleep through it all, but she is looking at me funny.  I don’t want to tell her why mommy is all whacked out on adrenaline, so I turn her music on and shut her door.  I come downstairs, and sit on the couch.

My intention at this point is to keep the bat sequestered to the bedroom, but to just not deal with it.  Basically, I want to call the landlady in the morning and have one of her sons come take care of this issue.  I just am not ready to deal.  But as the night wore on, it became apparent that no matter how tired I was, I wasn’t going to sleep with a bat in the house.  And then I start to think about what would happen if the landlady and her sons cannot find the bat.  Then I’ve got countless other sleepless nights wondering just where the bat went and when I was going to have to deal with it next.  At this point, it is about 5 AM, and I’ve been up since 1:45 AM.

So I get fed up!  I mean, absolutely fed up.  I do NOT like losing my sleep, sleep is a precious precious thing!  So I decide I AM going to at least attempt to catch the bat.  With my trusty weapon, a wet towel, I enter my room and turn on the light.  Now I can’t quite figure out what to do.  Where do I start?  What do I look behind?  Luckily it doesn’t take long for friendly Mr. bat to make his appearance.  In fact, he came up from my curtain behind my dresser and plopped himself RIGHT ON MY PILLOW.  Well thank you for that friendly Mr Bat!  You scare me a little!  I think that now is my chance, but I am a little scared to move.  I am standing there thinking of the wet mouse incident where we both just looked at each other wondering who didn’t belong!  Thankfully I was able to gather my wits, open the wet towel, and throw it over the bat.  I then picked the pillow up while holding the towel down, took the whole thing outside, and shook them out.  Friendly Mr. bat flew over to the neighbors house, and I really hope he isn’t so friendly that he comes back here!

Of course then my adrenaline was really pumping.  I mean, I CAUGHT a bat, all by myself!  I had to call mom and dad.  I had to share my joy!  I CAUGHT A BAT!  I did it!  I have had NO sleep, a bunch of extra knitting time, a whole lot of worry, but I caught that bat.

*Sigh*  Do I HAVE to go to work today???