My friend the Attic Bat

When did I see the Winter Bat in the Attic? Before xmas, right? Well, I think the same bat has gotten out of the attic and downstairs. On Tuesday night I was in the bathroom and I heard a noise, a flutter, a squeak, behind the wall somewhere. There was nothing in the bathroom to cause such a noise and it was on the other side of the room from the steam piped radiator. I stood still and listened and thought it sounded like an animal's rustle. I heard nothing after that. Wednesday I got up late and gave myself a clay masque facial and took a shower afterwards. I then got dressed and blew out my hair with the hairdryer. I put on a bra because I was leaving the house, and not just to walk the dog or shop anonymously as an old retiree, but to go to lunch at Hope and Olive. Maggie had sent me a text to give me a Good Clam Chowder Alert. I had sent her a postcard a few weeks ago begging for the good clam chowder and then last week a wee bird (Sarah Nelson Riley) told me that the clams had been ordered! So today was the day.

Ada and I descended to the first floor to find the large bat circling. I recalled that the Attic Bat was rather large also. Ada and I went over to the dining room, she silently, me saying, "oh boy oh boy, go away bat" or something. We crouched by her crate and I put her in. Unlike Pickles, who's incessant barking at the bats drove my blood pressure flying, she was remarkably silent, which blew my mind. This beagle has been known to be loud. I watched the bat and considered opening a window or the back door but was afraid to move. The bat was very large and circling low. Before I was able to screw up my courage, it landed behind a something or other on the shelf above the sink. I grabbed my bag and jacket and left for Good Clam Chowder.

I returned about 2 hours later, having done errands. Ada didn't give me any news about whether she saw the bat come out of hiding or not. I put her on her lead in the back yard and opened the back door. I did some chopping of ice on the back steps and general snow moving while waiting and hoping for the bat to appear. If it did, I didn't see it. I got my courage up and stood on a stool next to the sink. I pushed at the assorted flower vases and boxes stored up there and did not see anything unusual ( like a large brown bat! ) David came home and while I walked the dog around the block he left the door open for another 10 minutes and then closed it. It hasn't been seen since. We imagined something in the snow that the dog was intrigued with was the Attic Bat but it wasn't, it was a twig. At the thought of finding the bat dead in the snow (and, think about it, if we did find the bat and could do something with it what would we do? Kill it? Throw it outside where it would surely freeze to death, and in effect, kill it? No, I don't want that to happen. What if it found it's way to the bat house I have installed outside. That place is still very cold. The bat would freeze to death if it camped outside in there.) I was sad and did not wish death on my friend the bat. I hope it is still in the walls somewhere and will just stay there until May (when I leave for the summer and David can deal with it! ha ha ) when it can come out and fly outside without certain wintry death.