A 3:00 A.M. Tale In Which We Experience Batshit Crazy For Real

/ Ally Bean

As if last week, a difficult week for everyone, could not have been any stranger…

Forget your ancient church belfry, this tale takes place in modern times, starting in an upstairs suburban bedroom, moving to the two-story foyer, dashing about in 2 upstairs guest bedrooms, and culminating in the downstairs TV room adjacent to the kitchen.

Who is the star of this tale? Zen-Den, of course!

Here’s what happened.

I was awakened from a sound sleep when I heard the rattling of our wooden blinds at the bedroom window. I glanced over at the blinds and saw swooping birdlike shadows at the window. The shadows reminded me of scenes in the Alfred Hitchcock movie “The Birds.”

You see, in my drowsiness I thought somehow the bright light from the lamppost in front of the house was shining through the blinds making it appear that birds were creating shadowy silhouettes OUTSIDE the window.

But I was wrong.

I realized this when I got out of bed, walked over to the blinds to see what was going on at the window, only to learn that what I was seeing was INSIDE the house.

I definitively discerned this when something flew straight at me, swooped over my head as I hunched and shuddered, then dashed out the open bedroom door going into the foyer where it started flying around the chandelier like it was crazy.

Batty, even.

Fleece throw aka my impromptu babushka

Calmly, you would have been proud of me, I woke up Z-D who was oblivious to our winged intruder. I told him something was wrong, something creepy was flying around, and that he needed to get up to investigate. I also told him he’d be in the lead during the investigation.

I’d follow behind, on his six.

Utilizing my natural ability to scream loudly when under attack startled.

Without complaining he got up, dressing in jeans and a ragg wool knit beanie, and started walking around the upstairs rooms while I followed behind him, still in my jammies but with a plaid fleece throw [photo above] wrapped around my head like a Russian grandma in her babushka.

Quickly we realized that what I thought was a bird, was a bat. And that Z-D needed to get a broom from the garage, leaving me to stand alone in the foyer defending myself by screaming and holding a heavy doorstop [photo below] in front of my face, using it like a cross meant to keep vampires away.

This might have been helpful, maybe.

Heavy doorstop aka my potential weapon

The rest of this tale is what you’d expect if’n you’ve ever chased a bat through your house. We turned on lights everywhere. We got him out of one room, closed the door; then got him out of another room, closed the door; so on and so on, et cetera, et cetera. This went on until we were downstairs in the TV room where the bat was trying to hide on the floor in the shadows near a lounge chair.

Zen-Den saw him, wacked him with the broom, held him down, and shouted for me to get a cookie sheet from the kitchen. Which I did, putting it on the floor so that we could carefully slowly slide the bat, who was still alive and squeaking, onto it while Z-D used the broom to hold him down on the cookie sheet.

Together we slide our captive to the back door where Z-D then tossed the dude, who got into our house somehow but we don’t know how, outside into the snow.

The bat was shocked, but still alive, and gave us the evil eye as he straightened up and flew away into the night, no doubt as perturbed by this experience as we were.

And that, my gentle readers, is how it came to be that we experienced batshit crazy.

For real.

QUESTIONS OF THE DAY

Have you ever had a bat flying around inside your home? Assuming you didn’t want a bat flying around inside your home, what did you do to get rid of it?

Bats are known for their exceptional hearing abilities. Do you see the irony in a bat waking me up in the middle of the night because I’m extremely sensitive to sound? Am I part old bat and don’t know it‽

What’s the last batshit crazy thing that happened in your world? Tell all, we need to know.

~ ~ • ~ ~

230 thoughts on “A 3:00 A.M. Tale In Which We Experience Batshit Crazy For Real”

  2. We had a bird once, years ago. IT was during the day, and it flew out on its own. Sorry, not drama. Probably why I never wrote about it. I did have a squirrel in my workshop a few years ago. Again, I trapped him, set him free in the yard and fixed the hole he entered through. Geeze, my stories are boring compared to yours. Do you know how the bat got in?

    Liked by 1 person

    • Dan, we’ve had birds fly into our windows killing themselves on impact, falling onto our stoop or deck, but none inside the house. Squirrels are goofs so not surprised one got into your workshop. You were good to help it on its way.

      Our best guess about how the bat got in was that it flew into the garage while we had the garage door open when we were taking groceries out of the SUV. Then it flew into the house when we carried the groceries inside the house. It was frigid cold outside, maybe it was looking for warmth?

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  3. The only bats I’ve ever encountered were outdoors. How they would get into anyone’s house is a very good question. There is a way for critters to get into our attic (without being invited), but not the main house.

    You may be part bat, or the bat wasn’t being too quiet. Probably in a panic to get out.

    Nothing particularly batshit crazy has happened in my little world … except I’m sick. That’s not really batshit crazy, but it’s making me crazy. It just hit me all at once on Sunday, starting with a cough. Now I’m sneezing and coughing. Sigh. I haven’t had a cold since before COVID. And, sadly, I did not get my flu shot yet. I don’t think I have the flu (no body aches) but definitely a cold. Not COVID either. I took a test and it was negative … although the test was past its expiration date so who knows. Anyway, I’m going back to bed.

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    • Marie, outdoors is where bats belong. I appreciate them OUT THERE eating mosquitos and adding a gothic vibe to nature, but inside the house is too much for me. I bet you’re right that in its panic to escape it made enough noise to wake me.

      I’m sorry you don’t feel well. It sounds like you have a stupid cold, nothing more serious. At least that’s what I’m hoping for you. I suggest hot liquids, much snoozing, and am generous amount off whining.

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      • Thank you, I’m feeling better, Ally. I have imbibed lots of liquids and have slept a lot, although the first few nights were fitful. Last night was my best night. I think it is just a cold, but I’ll see my doctor tomorrow and beg her to give me whatever vaccinations are available … while they are available. 🙄

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  5. Oh, yes. We had several bats in our house when we first moved in. What we found out was that they had established an actual colony in a void wall in the attic. We had to call an exterminator after several nights of batshit crazy. Bats can enter and exit a home in a hole the size of a nickel. My advice? If you have even one more episode, call the experts.

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    • nance, you’ve answered something I was wondering: how big does a hole need to be to allow a bat inside? I promise you IF this happens again I’ll have an exterminator on the phone within hours. I did not, DID NOT, like this experience.

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    • Suzanne, a skunk! I remember years ago a friend had a skunk fall down the chimney into the fireplace and then chaos ensued. I’d forgotten about that and you’re right: one bat inside is better than a skunk.

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  7. Holy Crapola, Batman. I think I recall a bird in the house once. I have awakened and heard a mouse in the wall scratching (or chewing) than scampering. Then again, nothing like what you recently experienced. The good thing is that you turned the experience into a fun share.

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  8. I am the bat whisperer. I’ve rehomed them at least 3 times (different houses). You can throw a towel over them, pick them up and take them outside much like a chipmunk or mouse unless they are anchored to a ceiling fixture or anything out of your reach. Normally I know we have a bat because I have 3 cats staring at one spot. They don’t do that for anything but a live critter that doesn’t belong in the house. You did a fine job of “back up” for ZenDen. Loved the babushka idea. I’m sure it was a powerful weapon in subduing the bat.

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    • Kate, I didn’t know about throwing a towel over one and then escorting it out of the house. While I hope I never have to do that, it is good to know. I didn’t want to harm him, I just wanted him gone.

      Funny you mentioned your cats, in the midst of our chaos I told Z-D we needed a cat. A cat would never have let this situation happen, leading us hours earlier to where the bat was hiding.

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  9. Twice – the first time, living in an apartment. My husband was out of town, the cats were going, you should pardon the expression, bat-shit crazy in the middle of the night. I got up – saw the bat, got the broom chased and finally beat the hell out of the thing. Bagged the bat and actually went outside to put it in the trash. Second – we were living in a house (rented), husband was home this time, cats going crazy – husband managed to shoo bat out a window. Reported to the landlord (who happened to live next door) – turns out the attic was full of bat-shit and while they weren’t exactly nesting up there they were obviously coming and going. Landlord had the cracks around the chimney sealed and the attic cleaned – never had bats again.

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    • Grace, your two experiences are two experiences too much for me. However you handled them with aplomb. I am impressed that you were able to use a broom to send the intruder on to the hereafter. That’d would take some doing. I hadn’t thought about bats living in the attic, our attic? Oh that is unnerving, thanks [?] for mentioning that.

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      • Honestly if it happens again, I would try to shoo the bat out instead of killing it. They re useful critters. If my husband had been home I’m sure he would have been more humane. Definitely check your attic. As someone else said – they can squish through very small spaces. and cleaning up bat shit is no fun – glad I didn’t have to do it. Tho bat guano is a useful commodity.

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        • Yes, I don’t hate on them, feel they have their place in the scheme of things. We’ve checked around for small spaces they could come through and found none. Still now I’m on high alert, seeing our house in a whole new light.

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  10. I so wish all that was on video! I am glad that no bats or humans were harmed however…cause you know possible rabies and all YIKES! I think the biggest flying thing that’s ever been inside my house was a large moth. Yesterday a huge hawk was hunting in the area- biggest one I’ve ever seen around here- probably a good 2 1/2 feet tall head to tail tip. I did not invite him in.

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    • Deb, I’ve no doubt our antics while capturing the bat would have been funny, our language salty, BUT we were too focused on the task at hand to video ourselves. You understand, of course.

      We have some large hawks around here. Hunting is good in the woods behind the house. When we see them we mention to them that there are plenty of chipmunks under our front door stoop and that the hawks should feel free to indulge.

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      • I do of course excuse your not rushing to film the incident but are you not one of those homes that has some sort of device monitoring every move you make and powered by AI that controls and documents everything?? If I see the huge hawk again I will point him eastward. I know they have to eat but I just can’t stand catching sight of them hunting the birds that feed here, or the feathery aftermath when they get one. Even the big gray squirrels ran for cover and that’s unusual for them.

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        • Wouldn’t it be weird to the nth degree to have cameras everywhere in your house surveilling your every move?!! The mere idea that some people think that’s a good idea makes me fear for our future. All hail our AI masters.

          I don’t see hawks around here going for birds, ours seem to hone in on rodents. Different dietary preferences? 😜

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  11. A flying thing buzzing around in your house when you’re half asleep is nasty. A good thing you didn’t have any cats. They would have made things really interesting (a story I know of from a friend) by leaping at the poor bat! Now, how much batshit did you have to clean up?

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    • Lynette, your question is the one that came immediately to our minds once the bat was out of the house. We spent the next 20 minutes going room to room, looking for bat shit and holes around the windows. We saw neither, much to our delight.

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  12. OMG, I hate bats, even if they do eat mosquitoes. I like you making it clear to Z-D that he was going to be in charge. Smart move. We had a bat in our farmhouse decades and decades ago … in the room where I was breastfeeding our new baby in the middle of the night. I gave the same instructions to my husband!

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  13. We’ve had a Sparrow in get the house, but never a bat. The second night we lived in this house I was up in the middle of the night unpacking and moving into the kitchen and needed a tea break. As I was sitting in the living room sipping my tea planning where to put what I spied a tiny field mouse sneaking in through the slide on the sliding glass door.
    He-Man was sound asleep in the bedroom, so no help there. I noticed a wastepaper basket in the hall so I grabbed it and waited for the mouse to come out and I nabbed it! I opened the sliding glass door and slung it out. Phew crisis averted! Or so I thought. 20 minutes later it was back! I did the same thing grabbed the wastepaper basket nabbed it and slung it out a bit harder this time. Phew, that should do it! Nope, 15-20 minutes later it was back! I went through the same routine but, this time I slung it out even harder, and splat it went on the patio. It was spread Eagle and out. I thought I’d killed it. By now it’s 6ish AM and He-Man is up. I tell him what’s been going on and he rushes off to the hardware store for mouse traps and peppermint spray. He gets home…mouse is still spread eagle on the patio and he sprays the mouse and sets traps near the doors. An hour later the mouse is gone!

    We called in the pros who found little places mice could get in they sealed them up with steel wool and stuff, and set more traps, but we never saw the mouse that He-Man sprayed again. It was a tough little bugger!

    Liked by 1 person

    • Deborah, if it weren’t for that fact that no one in her right mind wants field mice inside the house, this is a story of one clever, determined little mouse. I can’t believe it kept coming back, using the same opening, only to get flung out the back door. Don’t know if he was brave or stupid— both?

      I knew about mouse traps and steel wool, but not peppermint spray. I’ll file that piece of information away, should I need to discourage any mice around here. I wonder if when your mouse friend got home all the other mice held their noses about his peppermint stench? 😉

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  14. I’ve had bat and bird experiences, mostly up in a cabin in Canada. I guess I’m pretty casual about it now, just turn off all the lights except where you want it to go, like you did it sounds like. They are pretty little so yeah, they can fit in but they don’t really want to be there they just think they do. Of course here it’s been so dang cold I wouldn’t blame them! All’s well that ends well, right?! Love the babushka.

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    • Martha, you know how to handle this scenario better than we did. Granted we got our intruder outside, unharmed, just irritated, but I don’t want to do that again. Agreed that this guy just thought he wanted to be inside, until he was inside. Luck for him we got him outside again.

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  15. No bats inside for us. Thank goodness! We did have a bird in the basement once. Flew down the furnace chimney. My kids and I blocked all other doorways with cardboard and chased it out the back door. Quite exciting family adventure!

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    • Ellen D., a bird flew down your chimney and ended up in the basement! That’s almost comic. Talk about a spontaneous family bonding experience while getting your bird outside again.

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  16. And to think, each of our kids while in elementary school constructed bat shelters for use in our yards as part of their science curriculum! Maybe that’s all you needed was a place they could call their own…(just a little jest!) Glad you survived the craziness – yikes!

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  17. No bats here. That I know of. One really doesn’t know. Now I don’t know but I’ve been told, in the winter, they like hanging out around chimneys for the warmth, and that is how many invite themselves to the parties. Maybe all those nights I wake up during the 3:00 hour, it’s not the witches I sense. Perhaps it is something even battier. And sorry, no batshit crazy stories. All my recent crazy has been plain old normal crazy.

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    • Micheal, it’s the “that I know of” part I find most unnerving. We hope this was a one-off experience, a lone cold bat looking for warmth in the wrong place, but who knows? Didn’t know about the chimney connection, thanks for the tip. Forget the Witching Hour, eh? Henceforth it’s the Batty Hour. Works for me.

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  18. My sister lives in a semi-rural area and had a recurring problem with bats. An inspector told her to go outside at dusk and watch her roof area, and when she did she could see the bat rush hour as they departed her attic en masse. She had three cats, none of them ever offered a helping hand as her husband swatted at them with a tennis racket (which they don’t see coming due to the holes). One of her cats actually teased us sometimes, doing a cat version of a spit take and then staring at a spot on the wall, which despite scaring us did not reveal a bat. My own problem is with mice in the basement, and I am gonna buy a big ole peppermint spray.

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    • Nina, thanks for this advice about how to see if there are bats in your attic. While I don’t want to do this, I want to do this. What if I find an infestation? Then will I ever sleep soundly again?

      I’m laughing about the cats playing mind games with you humans. Bet they think y’all are the batty ones. Mice are icky. I hope your peppermint spray works.

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  19. I remember several times as a kid having bats 🦇 n the house. My dad would just catch it in a towel and take it outside. Later, when it was just Mom and Mark in the house, she used a tennis racket to stun them an then use a towel to get them outside. They would come through the chimney.
    I remember thousands of bats swooping into the chimney at George Washington school at dusk.
    And how about the bats swooping down to the Isaly pool at night when we were swimming?

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    • Beth, I’ll FOREVER remember the bats swooping down on us at that pool. It was scary and fun at the same time. We were kids, what did we know?

      I just learned about the towel trick earlier today when another commenter mentioned it. We went straight to broom but I can see how a tennis racket could be useful too. The things we do when confronted head on with nature!

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  20. What a wild experience! And way to spend the middle of the night…
    I cannot say I have ever had the “pleasure” of ridding my abode of such a winged creature.
    I have, however, had a similar, though less traumatic, experience of ridding our house of a bird. Got in through the fireplace. Poor thing was traumatized!

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  21. Ally, I think there’s one more question to be asked: Would you ever, under any circumstance, use that cookie sheet again?
    We (by “we,” I mean my husband) helped a friend get a bat out of her house (log cabin). She had watched it squeeze in through the tiniest gap between the logs and her brick fireplace. It couldn’t have been more than a quarter-inch wide. We’ve since learned that they can squeeze through minuscule gaps. Bill immediately blocked it off and there have been no repeat visits. But, ick, just ick.

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    • Donna, the answer is yes. It has been scrubbed clean using a Brillo pad, rinsed under hot water, then wiped down with rubbing alcohol… then washed again with Dawn. Overkill? Maybe but I feel comfortable about it.

      I’m learning today that minuscule gaps around chimneys seem to be likely places for a bat to sneak into your house. As you can imagine I’m on high alert monitoring those areas of our house almost hourly.

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  22. It’s an odd coincidence that we just watched an episode of “Modern Family” where one of the characters was terrified of a pigeon on the loose in his house. He ends up smashing all manner of personal items in an effort to catch it. Between laughs I wondered how they train a pigeon to flap-flap-flap around to several strategic landing points. I’m guessing these scenes were pretty much filmed on the fly (ha).

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    • Dave, that is an odd coincidence. I don’t know that a pigeon would unnerve me to the extent of a bat, but let’s not do a comparison test to find out, okay? We didn’t break anything, but I can see how if you got freaked out enough that could happen. Especially in a TV program.

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  23. Yes, I had a bat in my house once. I left it where it flew into my bathroom. In the early evening, I returned and found it hanging from a curtain rod. Since it was asleep, I scooped it into a child’s shoebox. At dusk, I placed the open box outside. I checked an hour later, and it was gone! Bats are gentle, but can carry diseases, so I didn’t want to touch it. But I successfully returned it to nature, despite hysterical screaming from my children.

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    • KDKH, I like your approach to capturing the bat. We were too unnerved to think of what you did, so we went on the defensive. I don’t think we did any longterm damage to the bat, he flew off, but removing him less dramatically would have been better for my blood pressure.

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      • To be fair, it helps to be awake when you meet your bat guest! I thought it was cool and interesting. My hysterical daughter freaked out and climbed ne line a tree. Luckily, i’m boot very tall, and the bat rrmsibed out of reach. I removed the kids from the bathroom for the bat’s protection.

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  24. Oh my gosh. How on earth did that bat get into the house. Eek. What an ordeal. I’d have a hard time dealing with that during the day, but in the middle of the night? That’s the stuff nightmares are made of.

    I was one of the last ones to leave my dorm in May of my junior year. The dorms were really old with incredibly high ceilings. A bat was on the loose in the hallways. I remember enlisting the services of my lacrosse stick to try to swing at it, and covering my head with my hands when I had to bolt to the bathroom. If I recall correctly, I believe that security came with a very large net and caught it. Although there were only a few of us left, the ear piercing shrieks sounded as if there was a dorm full of girls.

    I believe there was a bat in a dorm at Tank’s school a few years ago, and all the kids on the floor (or something) had to get rabies shots. Apparently the fear was that the kids might not have noticed that they were bit while sleeping or something, better safe than sorry. Really? Could someone not KNOW they’d been bitten by a bat?

    Batshit crazy: Coach told me of an altercation in the stands during Curly’s game last night. I was at my writing group meeting, so I missed it. Um, as he told the story, Coach admitted that HE was part of the altercation. Shocking. I can’t believe I missed it. Their fans were sitting in our school section (there are no rules about this, and the stands are almost empty at girls varsity games, most likely they landed there unintentionally) and they were loud, and one of our dad’s kept yelling, “That was a foul!” Then their dads yelled at our ‘call the foul’ dad, like they cussed at him. Their team was romping on us, BTW. So Coach got up and hollered at the other dads: “You shut up. He’s just cheering. If you don’t like it, go sit somewhere else.” There was some back and forth. Eventually they moved to another part of the bleachers. I missed all the excitement!

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    • ernie, maybe one of the saving graces of this situation is that because were so soundly asleep we just reacted in the moment, no time to worry or fret or completely freak out. And then 10 minutes later it was over, taken care of.

      I’m laughing about a bat in a women’s dorm and security catching it. I can imagine the shrieks, having shown myself to be admirably loud when I see one inside the house.

      I don’t know how you could not know you’d been bitten, even in your sleep. I know when mosquitos bite me in my sleep, so if a bat bit me I’d be very AWARE of it.

      I’ve heard tales of parents at kids games getting too loud and disruptive, but to think Coach was part of it… well, that’ll take some time to process. That’ll teach you to let the man attend a game by himself without you there to tame him [or join him?]. 😁

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  25. Sounds like you did everything right, and thankfully no bats were hurt during the writing of this blog. 😊
    We had one come down our chimney years ago and would have scooted him right out… if our cat hadn’t joined in the chase and made it five times as difficult.
    🥴

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    • River, I’d like to think that a cat would be helpful while chasing a bat around inside the house, but I’m not surprised that yours, any cat actually, might not be helpful. They do what they do in the way that suits them, regardless of what you want.

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  26. Wow what an adventure.

    When I was little and our family was staying in a cabin for vacation, on landed on the foot of my bed. I was a pretty stoic kid and just quietly watched as my parents took care of it. Not sure how stoic I would be now. We also had one fly into our chimney and into the wood stove one summer. By the time we realized it was hanging upside down in there, it was a corpse. Asphyxiation.

    When my son was little, we bought this great little book about bats that came with a puppet. We learned about all the good they do. They really do get a bad rap.

    And there you have it, all my batty experiences. None as adventurous as yours.

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    • Jenn, I like bats when they’re outside, realizing and applauding their good deeds out there. BUT having one flying around inside the house in the middle of the night was freaky.

      You must have been a calm little girl, not willing to let a small thing like a bat on your bed disrupt your chi. As for the one who died of asphyxiation, that’s a pity but also he shouldn’t have been in your wood stove.

      The child’s book with the puppet sounds like fun, btw. Much more entertaining than the ones from our childhoods.

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  27. We had lots of bats fly down the chimneys (we had five of them) at our old Victorian house, and spent more than one night chasing them around with brooms and sheets and whatever. Eventually, with the suggestion of a friend, we found that if you get them in a room and open a window, they usually sense the difference in air pressure and fly out.
    In this house, we only have one chimney, and we installed a screen so they couldn’t come in.
    Did you know bats are not really blind?

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    • Dorothy, 5 chimneys! I can imagine that you had bat issues.

      I like the idea of getting your unwanted bat into one room, opening a window, and letting natural instincts take over. I’ll remember that, although I hope I don’t have to do that any time soon.

      I didn’t know that bats were supposedly blind, so finding out they aren’t seems right to me. I may not be the most conversant about bats.

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  28. Rolling…rolling in giggles over here, Ally. I felt like I was right there with you – babushka and all! I’ll need to share your adventure…misadventure…?…with a dear friend who rented a lovely lakeside home a few summers ago and unbeknownst to she and her hubby, the place was quite occupied! A batty threesome that become periodic vistitors. So much so that they named the trio Larry, Darryl and the Other Brother Darryl. 🤣

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  30. Years ago while traveling we often slept in the back of our pick up truck that had a cap over it. There’s not much room under those caps—enough to sit up but not stand up. One time in the middle of the night our dog went crazy running back and forth on top of my husband and me. Only my husband was such a sound sleeper he slept right through the episode. It was Crazy with a capital C! The bat finally left and the window was got shut. The dog loved it and kept looking out the window wanting it to come back to ‘play’ again.

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    • Jean, oh that’s funny about the dog wanting to keep playing. I don’t know how calm I’d be stuck in such a small space with bat flying around, but you handled it with aplomb. Those bats get into more trouble, don’t they?

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  31. Why, yes, Ally. We DID have a bat flying around our home. It was long ago, our kids were little, and we were renovating our kitchen. We had removed a big, heavy cast iron radiator the day before and there were still small holes in the kitchen floor where the radiator used to be. Below our kitchen was a crawl space. The bat got into the crawl space, wiggled (I assume) up through one of the holes, and flew around our house. I was the one to notice it, just like you. My husband captured the bat in between a broom and a tennis racket and we tossed him (her?) outside.

    The scariest thing about bats is their tendency to carry rabies.

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    • Laurie, I can understand how that bat got into your house. He was a bit too curious, I’d say. A couple of commenters have mentioned using a tennis racket while capturing an unwanted bat. I didn’t know about this but it makes sense.

      I know we were thinking about rabies as we chased the bat around the house. I’d prefer to avoid that experience. And seems like we have.

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  32. Bats make me shudder! We have them in our very old barn, and occasionally, we’ll see one flapping around, but they mostly stay hidden. Luckily, we haven’t had one in our house! Our biggest animal issue at the moment is a small herd of antelope that has decided our yard is a good place to hang out!

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    • Michelle, bats are usually rather coy around here. We don’t see them often, but of course we don’t have an old barn. I cannot imagine what it is like seeing a herd of antelopes outside on your property. I don’t suppose you could politely ask them to move along. 😁

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  33. Oh my. I’d have been freaking out for sure! We haven’t had anything like that happen inside the house but did have two raccoons getting it on on the back porch. I heard some noises and when I opened the door they were RIGHT THERE and giving me the evil eye for disturbing the moment. Other than that the only batshit crazy thing happened on November 5.

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    • Janet, I wouldn’t recommend having a bat inside your house, but it happens. Obviously. As for your amorous nocturnal visitors, my goodness gracious. GET A ROOM! Yep November 5 was batshit crazy, the starting of an era I suppose.

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  35. Out of a deep sleep, you were summoned to extreme action! Wow! Kudos to both of you.

    A bat zoomed around the A-frame Church during an evening service. A soprano in the choir loft screamed and ducked. I kept playing the hymn on the organ. What would you have done?

    I think we cornered the bat in the entrance to the church after the service. It was one of the most exciting services I was ever involved in, even without a conversion or a healing which I never witnessed.

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  36. No, I never have had a bat flying inside my house. We did have them swooping around our backyard in Palm Springs. We had birds who ended up inside the house, thanks to our cat. Today, I had a batshit crazy thing happen to me. I decided to break down a stack of boxes in the garage and put them in the recycling bin. Husband said he would do that at the end of the day. I felt productive and started at it. The last and final box, which was big, fought back and poked me smack in the eye. Ouch. It still hurts.

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  37. Holy cow, Ally! I love the thru-line you developed with the hearing. But we need the mystery of how it got in to be solved! Love your impromptu wardrobe and weapon selection. I think getting awakened in the middle of the night is one of the most disconcerting things ever. Nice job getting it out of the house.

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  38. That is absolutely terrifying to me! And I need to know if you threw away both the broom and the cookie sheet because GERMS! RABIES! 🤓🤓🤓

    I’ve not had any run ins with bats, but when my son was in high school marching band, they had bats that would dive bomb them on the football field at night. 😱

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    • Bijoux, it wasn’t my preferred way to wake up, I’ll admit that. It was so odd, she says in an understatement.

      I was in the marching band and am glad no bats found us. Maybe our field had lights so bright the bats didn’t like us.

      I scrubbed the cookie sheet with a Brillo pad, then rinsed with hot water, then poured rubbing alcohol on it, then washed it with Dawn. I think it is clean now.

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  39. YES!! We had a bat in our attic. A tale as old as time. They can get in to a house in a hole THE SIZE OF A DIME. All the bats in Wisconsin are on some state list of threatened animals (because they have not rebounded from a fungal infection from 2014) we are not allowed to deal with bat removal on our own. We had to pay a company to come out and deal with it. They basically just figured out where the bat was coming in from (there were two small holes in our roofline) and put up one-way valve things in each of the holes so the bat could get out, but not get in. It was expensive and annoying, but bats are the good guys.

    But they are also rabies carriers, so I DON’T WANT THEM IN MY HOUSE. Ahem. As you were.

    Liked by 1 person

    • NGS, I am hoping that this bat entered the house via a door when we weren’t looking. I didn’t know that in some places bats are on a list of threatened animals. IF we find another bat inside we’ll call a professional removal company. Thanks for the information about how and what they do.

      I like bats outside, they don’t freak me out, except that they can carry rabies, which freaks me out. I have a difficult relationship with bats.

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  40. Now I’ll have a new phobia of a bat flying around in my house! Eek, I’m pretty sure my cat would go batshit crazy but I wouldn’t want her to catch it/kill it. My friends were once at a dinner at another friend’s house who lives in a very woody area. Someone looked up and told her that there was a bird in her house–which turned out to be a bat! I don’t remember how she got it out, just that it was pandemonium.

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    • Margaret, I never ever would have thought that a bat could get in this house, we’re very conscientious homeowners, but one did. As for the chaos involved in escorting our visitor back outside, we succeeded obviously but was not fun. I did think while it was happening that we needed a cat. HOWEVER, like you said, I wouldn’t want my cat to touch the bat so maybe not.

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  41. Yikes! I have never had a bat in the house. Birds on a couple of occasions; they came down the chimney. Birds are not very scary. I kind of like bats. There was one that used to hang out in the smoking alcove outside my office. It was really pretty cute and not scary at all while it slept quietly during full daylight.

    I don’t think I want one in my house. I’m glad you and Z-D came through the ordeal unscathed.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Zazzy, at first when I thought it was a bird inside, I was calm. Not my preference to have a bird inside, but I could deal with that. However once we realized it was a bat, my demeanor changed for the, shall we say, crazy and loud.

      I have nothing against bats outside and the one you describe sounds sweet. Of course he was outside which in my book makes him more cute.

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  42. When I saw the title I thought “I hope this is about an actual bat.” You did not disappoint! That would be startling for sure. I have not had a bat in the house but there are bats around here, I think. They are helpful little creatures, but not so desirable for houseguests.

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    • Nicole, I have nothing against bats outside the house, but inside is another situation. Oddly enough as we were escorting our intruder out the door I was thinking about how this experience was LITERALLY batshit crazy. I am a wordy girl, no matter what happens.

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  43. I’ve encountered bats outside but not inside. I didn’t like them either. We had a school in the state recently closed because of bats. They had to hire a company to go in and get them out and then seal up all the openings they were using. Batshit crazy for us was yesterday morning at 10:22 a.m. when we had a 3.9 earthquake. I was running around looking out all the windows looking for some vehicle that surely must have run into the house based upon the noise and shaking that had happened.

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    • Judy, I thought of you when I heard about your earthquake. I cannot imagine how weird, batshit crazy, it was to have that happen where you live. Like things can get any stranger? Oh wait, yes the can. Glad you’re safe.

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  46. Just reading this made me shudder. I hate creepy crawly things and anything that flies and gets close to my head. Eeks.
    Moving on…
    I think my parents had bats in their house once, and I’ve definitely been outside and seen lots of bats flying in the sky…but always at a reasonable distance from my head which is exactly how I want it to remain.
    I do not handle animal scares well; when I was visiting my parents in the fall, a mouse got in their house and I could not stop screaming and jumping. It was 100% involuntary and I looked ridiculous, but it couldn’t be helped.
    I would have gone under the covers, poked my husband to tell him to handle it, and waited for my life to end OR for him to come back and give me the all clear. Whichever came first.

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    • Elisabeth, you’re right about the getting close to your head part, that was the freakiest part of all of this. Bats outside in the sky or up in trees are okay, but not near me. I can relate to your screaming about the mouse, btw. My shouting was involuntary, too.

      I felt like I should tag along as Z-D fought the bat, in case he needed back-up and he did. Without me getting the cookie sheet who knows what would have happened. Or how much it would have cost us to have professionals come in to remove the bat. One way or another it was leaving the house.

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  47. No bats (yet), only opossum and skunks in my house.

    I’m thinkin your bat flew in through an open door (chimney?) some other day/night and just found your room that night. To me, that’s better than worrying about a hidden inlet.

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    • LeendaDLL, I would not, would not, WOULD NOT, like an opossum or a skunk in the house. I’ll take a bat, given my druthers.

      We think it came in through a door seeking warmth, then waited until we were asleep to try to escape. Which it did. With help.

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      • I agree with your guess on the bat.

        I forgot… I’ve also had raccoons indoors. They were the scariest. The twins ran out but mom was ready to fight me. I backed off and she eventually left. The skunks have always left with a min of effort. One of the opossums was in the house for a MONTH before we coordinated our timing and it went back outdoors. Pretty crazy for the inner city!

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  49. We were at my uncle’s house in Mantua, Ohio (I think you’re in Ohio, which is why I mentioned it.) The kids (my brothers, my cousin and I) had gone to sleep and my aunt and uncle, Mom and Grandma Holton were having adult conversation, when a bat flew through the living room. My uncle got a badminton racket and killed it. Evidently, the bat can’t see it coming, so it doesn’t know to fly over it. Of course, he then made the mistake of telling us kids, so we were both scared and curious to see the bat.

    I got a cartoon book once that included a picture of a goofy-looking guy with the caption “Fullblown batshit crazy and still holds a responsible job.” I adopted it as my motto…

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    • John, a badminton racket would be like a tennis racket that many commenters have mentioned using when pursuing a bat. How interesting you remember the experience in detail. Made an impression, did it?

      Nice motto. One that has done you well!

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  50. Waking up in the middle of the night to find a bat in your room IS a horror story.

    Never had a bat in the house, thank goodness. But a friend of mine had a squirrel come in – the way he told that story had me in tears, I was laughing so hard. But what really was the kicker, was that he was freaking out so much that his wife had to deal with it.

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    • Gigi, well it was a bit of a horror story, now that you mention it. Not an axe murder kind though, just a homeowner’s nightmare kind of horror story.

      I wouldn’t like a squirrel in the house, but would probably be able to not freak out too much. I trust his wife encouraged the squirrel to leave posthaste?

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  51. Gave you the evil eye? That is worrisome. We’ve had birds get in through the chimney and then, covered in soot, made quite a mess before we were able to get them to fly out of the house. Sure hope you find out the critter got in!

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    • Jan, this bat was. not. happy. about us tossing him outside. I don’t blame him, it was bitterly cold out. Sooty birds? I can imagine that would be messy for all concerned. Fingers crossed this was a one-off situation.

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  52. I have empathy for you and the bat! What a horror for all of you. We’ve had a bat in our small cottage – it’s basically one room, so we were quickly able to turn on all the lights and open the door to the darkness for the bat to fly to. No biggie. But in my house? No, I can’t imagine. That’s one clever (or batty?) bat.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Arlene, thank you. It was such a weird thing to happen and one that neither had any experience with BUT we persevered until we got him outside where he belonged. I think he visited all the rooms until we escorted him out.

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  53. Yes, I not only had a bat in the house growing up, it was in my tiny bedroom, too. I screamed and ran out of the room. All family members except my dad came running. We found Dad calmly reading in bed, too engrossed, apparently, to care. He did, however, ultimately get it out. That not knowing how it got in in the first place is the most unsettling part!

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  54. Ugh. Ughughughugh. Though I can’t help seeing all the hugs in that. I’d tell you I’m giving you one, but I suspect you are not a hugger. I’m not much of one myself, but it’s a thing we say when someone has gone through it, isn’t it? And that story gave me the willies. We have never had a bat, but we did have a bird trapped in an interior wall once. Gave it a few days (because we did not know what to do), and then it started to sound frantic. I did not want a dead bird in our walls or on my conscience, so eventually we just busted a hole through the drywall (as one does, I guess). The bird found the hole, and then it was a tense few moments until it found its way through the open window. Ugh.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Rita, thanks for your ugh hugs. I appreciate the sentiment behind them. I wouldn’t like hearing a bird trapped in an interior wall. You did the right thing by putting a hole in the wall and encouraging the bird to flee the scene. Still, you gotta wonder how it got in there. Or how our bat got inside the house.

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      • The birds broke in through vent screens in the eaves, which gave them access to the attic. They then got down walls through openings in the attic. I’d like to tell you this happened only once, but it happened twice. We put heavy duty mesh on the openings, and they still tried to break through! They were very persistent and determined birds! Good to know that ugh hugs are OK 🙂

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  56. We’ve only had one bat get into the house. Also a squirrel. Mostly birds that would come in through the fireplace. We found that the birds and the squirrel were happy to leave if we closed all the blinds and opened the doors. We used the broom to help the bat decide where to go.

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    • Margy, birds inside the house, while not my preference, would be less creepy than a bat. No squirrels inside, please. Interesting how you got your intruders to leave. And let’s all take a moment to be thankful for brooms. 😊

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  57. Great story, well told.

    My bat-shit crazy story happened in Manila. My husband was away on business, so I was alone and naked when the crazy flying cockroach buzzed into my shower. Philippine cockroaches are super big. I’d never seen one fly before, though. It must have something to do with them going through some mad transformation because this cockroach flew so fast and so wildly, he couldn’t have been his normal self. After covering myself, I chased him around, trying to get him to go outside. The chase was unbelievably long lasting. He wasn’t afraid of me. He was just crazy … high on something, it seemed.

    My novel, When in Vanuatu, is fiction, but I couldn’t resist adding this true story to it.

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    • Nicki, your experience with a deranged oversized cockroach is way more awful than what happened to us. I’m shuddering thinking about you running around trying to get it go outside. I bet your heart was racing. I understand why you put this real life incident into your fiction book, you had to share that story. Eek!

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  58. I’ve never had a bat in the house, but I’d assume that a dish towel thrown over one would work as well as it does with birds. It’s the flying around that would spook me, but I’d still rather have a bat than a raccoon, possum, or squirrel. The bat’s not going to do any real damage, but those other critters? When they’re feeling trapped or threatened, they do what critters do: take on the opposition.

    Since I don’t have a bat story, I’ll tell you a raccoon story from Austin. A young couple who didn’t know much about nature discovered they were being visited by a raccoon. They thought it was cute, and started feeding it on their back deck. Before long, they discovered it loved marshmallows, and they started luring it to the deck with the sweet treat. Then, they decided to open the back door and put the marshmallow on the kitchen floor. Sure enough, the coon came in and got it.

    That went on for a while, until the pair decided it would be cute to train the raccoon to eat its way through the house, coming in the back door and going out the front, munching on a line of marshmallows.

    Then, they left for a two week vacation. The raccoon, denied its marshmallows, decided to take matters into its own paws. It broke in, and began looking for its treats. It never found them, but did about $30K in damage while it was looking around. Talk about a cautionary tale!

    Liked by 1 person

    • Linda, I agree with you that having an unwanted flying creature inside the house, while a lousy experience, is better than having a mammal trapped inside with you. They can be destructive and they have big teeth if they decide to bite you. Bats bite, sure, but not on principle like a raccoon.

      Which brings me to: what was this young couple thinking!!! Of course you shouldn’t encourage a wild animal to mosey through your house— for any reason. I’m less shocked about the dollar amount of the property damage as I am shocked by the naïveté of the young couple.

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  59. I did find an old dead bat in the garage when we got rid of some metal shelving. And I’ve found live ones inside my closed deck umbrella. They fly off when I open it. I’ve had to remove birds and chipmunks from inside the house
    The crazy thing I saw last month was a roaming male tarantula. They’re usually dead by the end of November. I wrote a fun essay about it that I hope to sell to a magazine. If that fails, I’ll put it on my blog.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Eilene, it makes sense to me that you might find a dead bat in the garage. I never thought about a closed deck umbrella being a bat friendly space, but I get it. Birds inside, I could handle with some grace, but a chipmunk… I’d be less filled with grace.

      Good luck with your tarantula story. I’ve not met one of those in the wild. I sense I’d not be calm about it if I did.

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  60. A lot of commenters mentioned ‘batshit-crazy’ stories, but no one could say this tale was “as boring as batshit.” I have had invading magpies, spiders and lizards but never bats.
    Bats here are a little different to most, more like a flying miniature fox! And that would have been even worse!
    Your babushka disguise sounds entirely appropriate for battling the bat and reminded me of that viral video from Ireland. I am sure you have seen it – if not you can have a laugh with ‘Derry’ here and Maureen behind the door!! Lol.

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    • Amanda, I’ve never seen that video so thanks. “You’re doing great” made me laugh out loud. I’m sure I said that as Z-D went after our intruder with a broom. My language might have been a bit more colorful, though.

      About a bat that’s more like flying miniature fox: NO THANK YOU. Birds, spiders, lizards even, I could be calm-ish when forced to deal with them, but your style of bat is beyond my abilities. Just saying…

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  61. Ally, I laughed at this line, which is exactly what I would do, that is, if I did not live by myself: “I also told him he’d be in the lead during the investigation.” I would definitely be “an old bat” screaming my head off. I’m happy I’m never had to deal with a bat – I have never even seen a bat. I freak out when I walk into a spider web outside, especially in August, when the spiders string those big webs and they are dew covered. Not fun. My friend lives in a rural part of New York near a wooded area and she sits outside after dark to watch the bats flying … too Halloweenish (if that is a word) … (maybe macabre is a better word) for me. I’ve not had anything batshit crazy happen lately in my world … what a dull life I lead!

    Liked by 1 person

    • Linda, well you know that after waking Z-D up from a sound sleep I thought it best to clearly state the chain of command in this project. Didn’t want any confusion about who’d be leading the attack.

      You’ve not seen a bat, eh? I’ve seen them up in the sky or in trees since I was a kid, they’re indigenous to this area. And seemingly prolific which is great if you want something to eat your mosquitoes or you’re into goth vibes. I don’t bother them and up until this situation, they’ve not bothered me.

      As for damp spider webs, we get those too. I agree it’s icky to walk into one but will admit that spiders are good engineers making some almost indestructible webs. Yay?

      Liked by 1 person

      • I would also be clear that I would be behind thus avoiding all risks from said critter.

        I’ve never seen a bat or a flying squirrel either. At Oakwood Metropark they have a nighttime event called “The Owl Prowl” and you sign up for it and the interpreter takes you into the woods and each person gets a big lantern to lead the way, hopefully to see owls. However, they have a disclaimer that you might just see a bat or two and some flying squirrels. Hmm. It sounds fun, but I dunno … things that go bump in the night may make this person who is squeamish about spiders and centipedes say “maybe not” after all.

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        • I don’t know that I’d want to go on that walk. Owls are cool, but wandering outside with a lantern in search of them seems optimistic at best, slightly dangerous at worst. And add in seeing bats or flying squirrels [😳] suggest it’s too *natural* for me.

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          • The “Great Outdoors” has its limitations for me too. When I was a kid, my father had a job interview in Oklahoma, so that roundtrip from Oakville, Ontario to Oklahoma was our Summer vacation that year. My father said “let’s camp along the way!” My mother protested but he wanted to do it, so she (wisely) suggested he rent a tent and we’d buy our own sleeping bags and air mattresses to try the idea before going all out. The first night we had rain – it poured and the tent had a leak. So much for the camping adventure. Mom had him pack up the tent, stow it with me in the backseat in a big plastic bag and we used hotels the rest of the time. Oh BTW, we had a VW Beetle.

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              • You know me well Ally. 🙂 I could never be at ease in a place where some creepy crawly may end up on any exposed part of my body that was outside of the sleeping bag. Bears, wolves would be secondary considerations … I could not get past the spiders and centipedes. Yes, it was one time when I was happy to be an only child and not have to share my space with siblings!

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  62. I have a great bat story that happened to me. I used to paint houses as a summer gig to bring in some money to suplement my teaching income. I’m painting a two story house and on an extension ladder near the top of the first floor where a deck runs parallel to the house. There is a narrow opening af about an inch where the deck almost touches the house. I’ve got a brush inside that narrow crevice and am painting inside the opening, but the deck prevents me from getting a good look. As I’m painting, I can feel my brush hit something inside the narrow opening. Suddenly, a bat flies out of there, scaring me half to death. I nearly fell off the ladder. As it flew away, I noticed a streak of paint on its back. I pictured the bat returning home and telling his wife, “You’ll never believe what happened to me today.” 🤣

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    • Pete, this is a wonderful bat story. It wouldn’t be if you’d have fallen off the ladder, of course. But I’m laughing too about what that bat said when he got home with his stylish [?] paint streak. I hope the color you were using flattered the bat’s skin tone! 😉

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  63. Yikes, yikes, and thrice yikes!

    I am impressed by the fighting configuration that you & Z-D adopted as if entirely natural – I may have to speak to Himself about him needing to up his game when we have rodent visitations. Do you think that bats can squeeze themselves virtually flat in the same manner as non-flying rodents?

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    • Deb, you’re right we did instantly get into a fighting formation determined to beat our foe. Granted one of us utilized her loud early alert warning system [screams] while the other utilized his hand-eye coordination [swatting], but together we prevailed.

      I don’t know precisely what size hole a bat can squeeze through nor how flat a bat can get, but we had our captive trapped securely between the broom and the cookie sheet that were maybe an inch apart. In other words very flat, and the bat fly away seemingly unharmed.

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  64. Oh! We’ve never had bats, but I was just talking about this scenario with a friend who had your experience. The closest we had was a very-hard-to-catch mouse who was ultimately captured by my clever husband who sat quietly in our family room after everyone went to bed and got a shoebox over it. You two are a good team!

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    • Barbara, this was our first batty experience and would be happy if it was also our only one. While we succeeded, maybe that was a one-off? I like your husband’s clever approach to catching a mouse. *Bwha-ha-ha*

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  65. Twice! Twice I’ve had a bat in the house. Once in this house and once in my old house. The first time, we tried unsuccessfully to remove him from the master bathroom but gave up after twenty minutes, removed the window screen, closed the door, and went back to bed. In the morning, he was gone. The next time we had a broom and a mop, trying to swish him out the door, but we accidentally stunned him and were able to move him out. After ten minutes, he flew away. Scary looking creatures, though, eh, Ally?

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    • Pam, you’ve had two too many experiences with bats inside the house yet reined victorious in both cases. Well done. I like the idea of getting the intruder into one room then opening the window as a subtle suggestion that it was time for him to leave.

      I agree that they’re scary looking, so very gothic.

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  66. On the east coast, I’ve seen the bats, and I am glad you got this one out alive. They are the only species in California that has tested positive for rabies in years, but that’s enough to make me proceed with caution. They are marvelous for bug control and cute, though. And of course the husband sleeps through everything, LOL.

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    • Autumn, I don’t hate on bats but I also prefer them to be outside in the forest behind the house rather in my bedroom. I doubt that he had rabies, he wasn’t aggressive just confused. As were we. The soundly sleeping husband is a trope, isn’t it?

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      • The sleeping husband is a trope, but clearly grounded in reality. I cannot think of a time when a noise has woken up Andy but not me. We have entire earthquakes and he will sleep through everything except me smacking him in the arm and yelling, “Didja feel that?!”

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        • I relate. In fact I was about as shocked that Z-D got up without arguing that he didn’t hear anything as I was that there was a bat in the room. He usually will go all lawyerly on me and argue the opposite of what I assert. But this time he did what he was told!

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  67. There’s a bridge in Austin, Texas where bats by the thousands come to “hang” out in the summer. People from all over come stand on the bridge to watch the nightly explosion of bats from under the bridge to go on their nightly hunt for bugs. Or so we’re told. They could be out for blood. They also give the TV weather people something to do with all their toys when the summer weather is on a daily repeat of hot and boring. Bat radar becomes the topic when the news has to take a break for weather, whether there is any or not. “See that big green blob on radar there over South Austin? Well, it’s not rain, folks, it’s BATS!” When I lived there, I avoided that bridge like the plague. Flying rats, by the thousands? No thanks.

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    • Phil, I understand why you avoided that bridge in Austin. I also understand why weather forecasters loved talking about it when it was too hot to talk about anything else. I don’t see the appeal of watching a bunch of, as you cleverly said, flying rats do their nightly thing, but whatever floats your boat. Seeing one bat on one night was enough to keep me happy for a lifetime.

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  68. Oddly enough, just an hour ago Tara and I were talking about installing a bat house in our backyard this summer. We’ve had it for a couple of years now but have yet to put it up. We love watching bats flying overhead during the summer months, making a buffet out of all the insects. Of course, I might feel differently if one got inside our house…

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    • Mark, I’d like to have a bat house outside, too. BUT you have to put them high up on the tree and the way our property slopes down to the creek we cannot find a flat enough spot to lean a large enough ladder against a sturdy enough tree to put one up. We’ve thought this through. I hope you get a bat house and take some photos of your visitors. I like the gothic vibe of bats outside.

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    • I’m laughing. Your comment deserves an award 🥇!!! Yes, this is a luxury hotel and we are the concierges/security detail. Happy to serve our guests in whatever way is best… for all concerned.

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  70. Have I ever seen a bat flying around my home? Yes!!! One night, I entered my bedroom to discover something flying around. I thought it was an extremely large moth at first. But no! It was a bat! I hdn’t realized their ability to squeeze in through tight spaces. Well, it showed itself out, thankfully!! So I can relate to your experience! The area where I live has plenty of bats.

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  71. Wow! You handled that a lot better than I would have! I once came home to find my dogs in the bathroom, behind a closed door with a dead and bloodied chipmunk on the floor. (I couldn’t tell at first glance what kind of animal it was, but I could tell it was dead and there was blood.) I let the dogs out of the bathroom, grabbed my phone, ran out to the front porch and called my husband to come home and deal with it. I told him I wasn’t going back in the house until he did. I also told him that if that animals was a rat, we moving! So trust me, I admire your courage.

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    • Ann, what you encountered was much worse than seeing a live healthy unwanted critter than a dead bloody unidentifiable something. That’d freak me out to the nth degree, too. I understand how rat = moving. Makes sense to me.

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  72. Many many years ago, my ex boyfriend had a bat in his house when I was there. He put a laundry basket over his head and a broom in his hand! It was so long ago, I don’t know how quickly he got it out of the house!

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    • Nancy, I like the laundry basket on his head detail. Having been through our night of the bat I can understand why he did that. Those buggers are fast and come straight at you, then swerve away at the last second. Unnerving!

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  73. What a crazy story, Ally. I have never had a bat in my house. Once, many years ago when my children were small and we had a cat, the cat dragged in what I thought was a dead bird. Once I made him drop it, the bird began flying around the house, which did create a lot of yelling and running around by people and animals. In the end, the bird found its way out of the open door. Another time, a bat appeared in my workplace on Halloween day, causing speculation that someone may have placed it there as a prank, but who would go to all that trouble and risk to trap and release a bat? I don’t know. The maintenance crew came to the rescue, and the mystery was never solved.

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    • Christie, I’m chuckling about what I figure is a delightful understatement: the bird began flying around the house, which did create a lot of yelling and running around by people and animals. I can imagine!

      That’s weird about a bat on Halloween. If it was meant to be a joke or something, it seems like the experience failed to hit the mark, unless it was to give maintenance something to do. Yep, very odd.

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  74. Okay, this is my childhood trauma story, being awakened in bed by a bat flying over my head. It is one of the most popular ‘Jennie Stories’ I tell at lunchtime to the children. I have walked in your shoes!

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  76. Ally, we all need to know how the bat got into your house—this is the biggest mystery! I feel bad for the guy, I mean, surely he wasn’t intent of terrifying you. Right?

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    • Suz, you and me both NEED to know how the bat got inside the house. Our best guess is that he accidentally flew into the house while we had our garage doors + back door open when we were carrying in groceries and such. It was frigid cold outside and he sensed warmth. Then he waited until the dead of night to try to escape. I feel sorry for him, too. He wasn’t vicious, just in the wrong place and wanted to go home.

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  77. I’m just sitting here screaming OH! MY! GOD!! at the computer because I 1000% would be done. The heart attack of dinding a bat flying in my house would be followed by the anxiety of trying to figure out how the freaking thing got IN so as to prevent a repeat episode and the knowledge that it doesn’t matter what I do, I could wake up to BATS FLAPPING AROUND MY FACE…well, clearly I’d then have to move.
    You are a stronger person than I am.

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    • Laura, I understand what you’re saying and frankly am surprised by how cool I was in the situation. I didn’t have time to go into a panic attack, just reacted, which might be why I survived like I did. As for figuring out where the bat came from, we think that as we brought groceries into the house it flew through open garage doors into the house in search of warmth. It was frigid cold outside that day.

      We’ve had no other intruders since this one but I’m still walking around inside the house staring at at every possible place where a flattened bat could sneak inside… just in case our guess about how he got inside is wrong.

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  78. Oh my God Girl!!! My this is a nightmare and I would pass out. My husband has the best bat story, exaggerated of course but my sister called him over because her husband was at work. Her and my nieces were hiding in their bedroom because of a bat in their living room. My husband tells the story like he was Superman, Spiderman, captain america and Jackie Chan all wrapped into one. LOL

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  79. Thank you for making me smile and laugh, and for the memory of chasing a bat our of our home once or twice. I think the stories of those encounters are pretty similar to yours without the heavy doorstop.

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    • Robin, we never have had the pleasure of dealing with a bat before, so very exciting to get him to move on. I’m not sure but I think the heavy doorstop was the key our success. 😉

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