there was a BAT in our POSTBOX

[kaberett]

I came in from buying groceries, went "urgh why there is a big dead leaf in our pigeonhole", followed by "urgh why is it so FUZZY", followed VERY RAPIDLY by "WHY IS IT YELLING AT ME."

...

it is a bat.

after half an hour of minor hysterics (phone call to the RSPCA, attempting to coax it onto a teatowel, It Yell about being DIGNIFIED and ABOVE THIS SORT OF TREATMENT, hysteric) it is in a dark box with a teatowel to hide under and a juice bottle cap with a little water in it.

once it gets dark we're going to have to do the deeply un-London thing of knocking on an upstairs neighbour's door, holding a cardboard box containing a bat, and ask very nicely if we can borrow their balcony for half an hour, because it wants at least five metres vertical height to swoop from. if it hasn't done so within half an hour we're to call the RSPCA back.

...

BAT.

Comments

[hilarita]

BAT!
sqook!
I hope it sorts itself out!

[alexwlchan]

…

…

… any idea why it thought your postbox was a good place to roost? (Do bats roost? Is that the right word?)

[rydra_wong]

BAT.

As a bat-lover, I wish to thank you for your kindness and thoughtful care for the bat, and I hope both interaction with neighbours and swooping can be accomplished with minimal extra stress for all concerned.

(How did it get into the postbox? Did it seem stuck, or was it hoping to nest there?)

[redbird]

Yow. May the rest of this process go smoothly.

[recessional]

BABY.

[kaberett]

bats do roost!

our best guess is that it flew in the front door last night when somebody came in, got very confused in the hallway, and found itself a nice corner to hide in. It is not, however, a USEFUL nice corner, so we... liberated it.

[kaberett]

I am very fond of bats! My baby brother does guided bat-specific punt tours sometimes, and my middle brother is pest control i.e. knows how to handle a bat!

In this instance it... escaped... from the dark quiet box we put it in with a small quantity of water... and was flying about our house in some WHAT IS THIS PLACE distress. On the grounds that it was an adult and appeared to be uninjured we opened the patio door and it promptly took itself off; Adam ran onto the grass in his sock feet to wave his arms menacingly at a magpie which thankfully then Desisted, and it disappeared into the trees where Hopefully it will be fine.

(The way our block of flats works, there's a shared front door with letter box and then pigeonholes kinda-sorta up the interior wall for individual flats. It had got itself snuck into one of those, rather than being in the letter flap on the door proper, so we assume that it followed someone in last night when the front door was open and the lights were on and then got stuck. We Sincerely Hope we did right by it by letting it out...)

[kaberett]

it has definitely gone; see other comments; We Hope It Is Okay but really there wasn't a great deal else we could do...

[kaberett]

TINY FURIOUS HISSING. SO ANGER.

[kaberett]

I told A it had HISSED AT ME and he looked sort of... perplexed

and then we went back with the cardboard box and the teatowel and the gardening gloves and started prodding it again

and it RESUMED HISSING

and we both had to take a break for another minor hysteric

[alexseanchai]

hope bat is okay now?

[lilysea]

Thank you for doing your best to look after bat.

[rydra_wong]

We Sincerely Hope we did right by it by letting it out...

I'd think so -- I imagine it will hide out in the trees until night, and that will be less stressful for it than flying around in your house in a panic at the alien dimension in which it has become trapped.

[tree_and_leaf]

Aw, bat!

Although I admit that, even though I love them dearly, I would have screamed the place down if I'd put my hands on what I thought was a dead leaf and it had turned out to be a bat. I hope it takes off.

(ETA: seen subsequent comments. I hope your evening is peaceful and bat free!)

[forthwritten]

YAY BAT.

Thank you for looking after the tiny hissing winged fury.

[jesse_the_k]

BATS and interiors are not truly compatible.

We're often cautioned, in the U.S., that bats could carry rabies. Therefore we're always supposed to call the Bat Removal Specialists such as your middle brother. Which hasn't stopped me from boxing up bats several times when they slipped in through a torn screen on a second-floor sleeping porch.

But your islands are rabies-free?

[conuly]

Thank you for trying to help the poor little bat.

[ewt]

BAT!

[sasha_feather]

This was my thought too! Rabies is so scary and a kid died recently, after getting rabies from a bat.

[shewhostaples]

Bat! I hope it is OK.

I am reminded of how a swan ended up in our garden the day we moved away from Winchester (I was tiny and don't remember it at all, but my mother tells the story quite a lot.)

[kaberett]

In fact bats are essentially the only rabies reservoir on the island! At the point at which I had realised it was a bat I got out my gardening gloves and a teatowel for further handling. :-)

[kaberett]

Please do go on. :-)

[davidgillon]

I was practically in tears of laughter following this live on FB this afternoon.

I sort of had my own virtual version last night. I was playing Ark, and was setting up a new small base. I'd no sooner gotten the walls up than a bloody pteranodon decided it looked like a good place to land, and of course it couldn't take off easily because walls.

SHOO!

[kaberett]

we WERE in tears of laughter. :D

[ursamajor]

Ha! I'm glad you and A and the bat are all okay now :)

(Plus, it reminded me of the flying mouse affair, which never fails to send me into hysterics every time I reread it.)