Bat Country!

There is some open land around us, but we'd be kidding ourselves if we didn't acknowledge that we live in a pretty standard townhouse complex. That's why it was so surprising last night when, while we were eating out boerewors & baked potatoes on the couch in front of the t.v, a bat flew into our lounge!

I like bats, I think they are cute. I think I read somewhere that we don't get vampire bats in South Africa ... I hope ... and not much fruit around here either, so this guy must have been the variety that feeds on insects. That's just fine by me. I don't really like insects much, with the exception the Praying Mantis.

However cute I think bats are, when they flapping around your head only the most hardcore folks would fail to duck down and cover their heads. Which is exactly what I did. Hunny, bless his soul, dropped to the floor and leopard crawled out the room. Hunny does not like bats that much.

I've handled a couple of bats before. My folks live on a 5 acre plot, and a couple of times bats ended up on the brickwork of the front porch. They will drink warm milk from a spoon, did you know that? And they have really cute squished up faces. And a good hunting cat will recognize a rescued bat as the rodent that it is and will kill it. Anyways, with my Hunny looking like he wanted not much to do with this, and the bat not looking like it would find it's own way out, I started trying to trap it under a dish cloth. From the lounge, down the passage, and eventually I got him in the study. Neatly scooped up in the dish cloth, I took him outside, and after a few moments of deliberation he decided dishcloths weren't for him and made his way back into the night. I don't think he'll be back. Hunny said something along the lines of "that's why I married you". Same thing he says when I take the frogs out of the house.

It warms my heart just a little though, to think that despite the way my old neighborhood is being built on and developed (my Hunny & I live not very far from the where I grew up), there is still a little bit of nature left out here. Bring on The Wild!