So I just went downstairs to do some laundry, and made my way to the kitchen to grab the napkins to wash. Just as I got to the door, I saw . . . something gray on the kitchen floor. I didn't have my glasses on, so I couldn't really identify it. But I think you will all understand when I say that I'm very, very cautious of unidentifiable objects in my house. Especially gray ones.
In a curiously uncharacteristic move, I actually mopped the kitchen floor today, so there should not have been anything on the kitchen floor. And it was kind of big. My first thought was a clump of mud that I somehow tracked in without realizing. But no, the ground is dry and hard, so no mud. Maybe a mouse one of the cats brought in?
So I approached very, very slowly, ready to bolt if it was anything alive, and I got close enough to identify it:
BAAAAAT!!!
Did you see that one coming? Yeah, I had my suspicions, too. It didn't move at all, even when I grabbed a bucket and upended it over the nightmare. Maybe it's dead. I'm not going to look any closer to find out.
And in related bat paranoia: The MiL informed me last night that the little bats can actually bite you while you're sleeping (GAAH!) and you wouldn't even know it (GAAAAAH!!). AND, she had a student whose best friend got bit while she was sleeping, and then she got rabies AND DIED. GAAAAAAH!!! Why does she tell me these things?
So, who wants to come visit?
7 comments:
I told you before, you supply the fresh veg from the garden, I'll bring the pasta fixins. Although I should point out the last time you extended the invitation you neglected to mention the water situation.
Now, let me see if I've got this right for when I tell the story: "This person I know from the internet? (No, I've never actually met her.) Her mother-in-law is a teacher, right? So this person's mother-in-law once had a student whose best friend got bitten by a bat in her sleep and she died from rabies. So I know that it's true."
Is that about what you're saying?
And on a completely unrelated note, why does Google's spell-checker insist that "internet" should be capitalized? Why does anyone's spell-checker/style guide say it should be capitalized? It's not trademarked, and I think it's pretty solidly entered the common lexicon.
The MiL must be toying with your mind with a great deal of glee! I suspect that the bat in her story about rabies was a vampire bat, a species that normally feeds on blood. Find out all about it at:
http://www.science.smith.edu/departments/Biology/VHAYSSEN/msi/pdf/i0076-3519-202-01-0001.pdf
Your local NY insectivorous bats are unlikely to spend much time chewing on you as you sleep. On the other hand, perhaps a 4-poster draped with netting to keep out nocturnal crawling and flying critters would be advisable, just to be really safe.
Stinkin' Blogger appears to have truncated a line of the long URL that I posted for vampire bat info. As an alternative, Google "Mammalian Species Accounts" and go to species account number 202 to get vampire bat info, or not.
Oops, the complete vampire bat URL really is there when viewed on your actual blog page, as opposed to the comment submission page. Now I really will, finally, shut up.
Creepy, creepy, creepy, creepy, creepy!
Will house cats take care of bats? I would absolutely freak out if I found a bat -- dead or alive -- in my home.
I'm hoping it's an isolated incident.
listen my husband's cousin had a bat in her house. she trapped it in a shoe box, stuck it in a bucket of water, and put the bucket outside in winter to freeze. the next morning, the thing was frozen solid but ALIVE.
i do not condone that kind of torture but i also do not condone wildlife in my house.
Well, if it makes you feel any better, modern medicine recently won the first known case of a person surviving rabies. They just induced a coma in the girl while the virus ran its course. Lovely, right? But at least you know you've got a fighting chance now.
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