Can I just say what the fuck?!
It was a year ago, maybe to the day (feel free to check the archives) that I found a dead bat on my living room floor.
Last night I woke to squeaking/squealing/some godawful noise, followed by IVF Kitten chasing something barely-off-the-ground into my office. Which is directly off my bedroom, in case you were wondering.
At that point I barricaded myself and LG in her room. And can I just say trying to sleep with a 7-year-old on a twin bed when you are 6 months pregnant is not exactly comfortable?
Eventually the need to pee won out, so I turned on every upstairs light. Found the bat hovering in my office. Slammed that door shut. Got cats out. Grabbed extra bedding. Slammed my bedroom door shut. Holed up on LG's floor. (No, that was not any better than the bed.)
I am now on campus, because my fucking laptop is locked in with the bat. And my friend Batman (who got rid of the last installment of bats, plus the squirrels) is not due to arrive for another hour.
But, hey, at least LG thinks bats are cute.
I love your blog. I am a new follower. I had a bat in my place and the cat attacked the bat. Not good. A very weird noise they make. I hope you get rid of him/her ok!
ReplyDeleteLoren at aworkingprogress@gmail.com
Hi, Loren. Thanks for reading (and commenting!). Seeing as the bat is still AWOL in my house (or perhaps it left?!), I'm hoping the cats at least alert me to its presence again!
ReplyDeleteHope the bat has made its exit and all is well again. Hate those things.
ReplyDeleteOK, this is going to be way too long a comment, but I want to chime in with some probably unwanted ass-vice. I do realize that it's hard to avoid an occasional bat, in particular kinds of houses in particular areas. I live in a 100-yr-old house in a neighborhood of tree-lined streets. Virtually everyone I know in the neighborhood gets a bat now and then. However, you might want to get an exterminator/bat expert in to see if there are any holes that need to be plugged. Especially before the baby arrives.
And here is my anecdotal support. Two years ago, I woke in the middle of the night to find a bat flitting around the bedroom where I was sleeping with my 10-month-old son. Fortunately, my partner had fallen asleep in bed in another room with my older son, so it was just the two of us. We weren't able to contain the bat; it disappeared, probably out the same opening from which it had emerged. (We suspect a slight gap between storm window and window frame--old house, recall.)
Everyone else eventually went back to sleep, but I was up for the night and of course decided to ... research. Which led to an early-morning call to the ER just to see if I should be concerned, which led to being told in no uncertain terms that my baby and I MUST COME IN IMMEDIATELY to start rabies shots. Though there was a minuscule chance we'd been bitten or had physical contact with the bat, and additionally that the bad was rabid, I was told that you just don't mess around with rabies. Interestingly, another family was at the ER at the same time, for precisely the same reason.
The shots weren't actually that awful for me, since I'd had so many progesterone shots in the butt already and was used to off-and-on nausea. The baby was fretful and sick, though, for the duration of the shots (a month or so?). The upside is that (a) we're both covered for rabies for the foreseeable future!, and (b) the house is now bat-proofed.
So sorry for the long comment and a possible source of anxiety for you. If bat-proofing IS something you think you might want to look into, this would be a good time.
Thanks, Heidi. The house HAS been bat-proofed and Batman looked around yesterday and didn't find anything suspicious; he did say that there's a gap by a window AC unit that I should tape up, as it's possible that's how the bat got in. When I found the bat last year (when IVF kitten hadn't even yet had rabies vaccine!), I had a long talk with the county health department, and she didn't think any other measures were necessary, beyond early vaccination of the kitten... Perhaps it depends upon where you live as to how these things are handled...
ReplyDeleteOh, this gave me shivers. I lived in a 100+ year old building, and had bats flying around every few weeks. Thankfully, I too have cats, and one in particular was an expert at the art of catching bats. The landlord refused to do anything about it until I threatened to put a dead bat in the envelope with every rent check until he took some action. Well, he never did, and I got fed up and moved, but the experience haunts me!
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