The Bat Story

First of all, I'm going to post teasers more often, I'm loving the buzz that this has created!

Okay, a couple weeks ago I kept my neice, she, Eliya and Bean were pretending to be bats (read past posts to see the focus we've had on bats lately) They were holding onto theit blankets and "flying" around and catching mosquitos. They made me say "Cock-a-doodle-doo" so they could go to sleep and howl like a wolf to wake them up...ahhh, my brilliant homeschooled kids...

I was sick of constantly fixing their blanket/wings so I did what any supermom would do and made them bat wings.

Here's my super-brain babies hanging upside down to sleep...okay so they're not sleeping and Abby looks like sh'es being choked (she's not) but you get the idea!!

So they're being bats all day, they're flying, colecting mosquitos I called Wes and Cindy and said "I have bats in my house!" They are conserned and I tell them I have 3 huge bats...they catch on, we all laugh...good times.

That afternoon, the kids and I went over to Cindy's and were hanging out. Cindy went down stairs to put a load of laundry in adn came back up and wispered "I think there's a bat in my washing machine." She wanted me to go check it out. I went down and due to my recient bat research I know that this could be a rabid bat, after all, how normal is it for a bat to be in a washing machine? I also know that a bat can bite you without you knowing it b/c it's fangs are so small and fine. I also know that there have been two rabid bats found nearby in the past month or so...I knew too much...I mustered up all the courage I had, found a blanket to protect my arms and hands in case this little creature decided to fly at me like in a movie (unlikely but not worth the even miniscule chance) adn opened the lid. Sure enough there was a bat in the washing machine. I slamed the lid down and ran upstairs...aparently my courage had run out.

I called Wes and told him ther was a bat in his mom's house and he didn't believe me...maybe that's why James said let your yes be yes and your no be no...Anyway, I convinced him and he told us to call the health department and he'd be there in about an hour. Cindy called teh health dept. and they said we havent been "exposed" and really this wasn't unusual and we just need to catch it and release it. Cindy called some exterminators and the only one who would even do it cost $260!! I told her Wes would do it for half. (We're still waiting on that check. BTW)

Wes came and I made him take pics. Here's the bat in the washer.

So Wes caught the poor thing with a pool net and a broom stick. I told him to bring over his leather work gloves so he could just pick it up and set it free, but he brought over these felt gloves that the bat could have bitten through. So the bat is in the net, looking angry and injured and my mother-in-law thought the kids would like to see it.

Nice, huh? So the bat is angry and scared, probably hurt and screeching at us. Eliya thought is was interesting for about a second and went back inside. Bean and Abby on the other hand were completely interested in this creepy flying rodant and watched it like a train wreck. Wes and his sister took the net out to the back of the yard to set it free.

It didn't (or couldn't) fly so Wes tried to fling it into the air with the broom stick where it looked like your classic bat for about 1.63 seconds. It went straight up into the air and spread it's wings to look like an out of place halloween decoration against the blue sky...then it fell...into the pool...

At that point Abby and Bean learned that bats can swim. My mother-in-law was freeking out and Wes tried to retrieve the little guy before he drowned (not to be nice, he just didn't want to have to pull a dead bat out of the filter.) It followed the current around to the skimmer and clung for dear life.

Wes, or his sister, things are a little blurry during this part, took the pool net and got the bat back out to the yard. The kids are trying to run out, I'm trying to keep then calm, Wes is yelling at everyone to go inside b/c he was sick of all of us women giving him 3 different orders at the same time. I'm yelling don't hurt him, Cindy's yelling get rid of him and Christy's snapping these pictures.

I was keeping the kids back by the house to try and keep them safe. Then all of a sudden in this enviroment of pure chaos, Wes started beating the life out of the bat with the broom stick. Everyone starts screeming, Abby jumps into my arms, I grab Bean, yell at Wes and drag the kids inside. Once we were in, I tryed to explain to Abby that Uncle Wes had not turned into a broomstick weilding psychopath, that some times when animals are hurt, the best thing we can do is kill them. Isaiah is running arround saying "Daddy smash bat!! Daddy Smash bat!!"

The kids haven't put their bat wings on since that day and cower away when Wes is sweeping...no, that last part isn't true. So here's one last pic of the kids' first and last time wearing their bat wings.