Bats are probably my least ever favorite Halloween decoration. But, I do have to admit this one is kind of cute. I found the picture at papertreyink . I'm not sure if there is a pattern.
I do have a long list of reasons for my bat aversion. And now I will share them with the world. One of my first memories is waking up to a bat flying about the room. I was very young, about three. We lived in a duplex house and my bed was a couch in the front room.
As a teen, I loved to scare myself with a good vampire book or movie. I'm surprised I didn't wear a string of garlic around my neck as protection. I did have a little cross necklace, just in case.
Several years later, I was a young mother living in a big old house. One night I went to bed early with a headache. Once again, I woke up to a whooshing sound of a bat flying around and swooping over my head. Screaming, I finally ran for the door. My husband was on the other side, holding it shut. He said I shouldn't let the bat escape or we'd never find him. After some more murderous screams on my part, he came in and managed to trap the bat between the window and the screen. And then he went to bed and FELL ASLEEP!!!!!! I'm not sure if I ever forgave him. I sat up all night watching the bat.
I had a few more instances both in our house, and in the two museum houses I've worked in. I once gave a tour while watching a bat on a curtain.
My craziest bat story was in the middle of the night. I was in the bathroom, indisposed, when a bat appeared flying over my head. From a seated position, I managed to grab a towel, throw it up in the air, trap the little creature, bringing it to the floor. I put a wastebasket over it, locked the door, and told my husband in the morning. Essentially, I gave him another chance to be my hero. We found out that our bats had come in through a very small opening in the bathroom light fixture. Luckily, they weren't living in the house.
My most recent batty adventure was a few years ago. I was watching my three young grandchildren, and had just gotten everyone upstairs to bed. They live in an old Victorian house. Several rooms on the main floor connect in a circle and there is an open stairway to the bedrooms upstairs. Suddenly, a bat appeared, and I knew I had to keep it away from the kids. I closed the door to the dining room, so it could travel around the four rooms. I was so worried it would go upstairs. My plan was to call my daughter, and get them home, but, of all times, I had forgotten my phone. Plan B was to get him outside. I knew from past experiences that a fan at the door will help them to find the way out. I didn't have a fan, so I thought that opening the door would be the next best thing. So for nearly an hour, I stood at the dining room door, and watched him as he flew in a circle from the front room, parlour, another room, and enclosed front porch over and over again. When he was on the far side of his journey I ran to open the door and then back again. He flew in the same path, and didn't venture up the stairs. I watched him and knew I wasn't able to fall apart and scream. Finally, I got him outside. When my Meg and Jack got back home, every single light in the house was on, and I was upstairs guarding the kids, who had peacefully slept through it all.
And yes, I do know that bats are good for the environment, and that they eat mosquitoes, and yet........
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