Cats and Bats

Last night I went out to check the mail at 9:30 or so. It wasn't very cold out so I decided to sit on the back patio and let the cats wander around the backyard for a few minutes. I turned on the light by the back door and sat in my chair. I noticed something moving around the light so I looked over and saw that the top of the light fixture was flipped open. I guess the wind blew it up or something. There was something moving inside the fixture. At first I thought it was a moth but I quickly noticed it was too big to be a moth, or even a few moths. I looked closer and saw that it was a bat! The poor thing was trying to climb up the side to get out, but he couldn't make it up the slick sides of the plastic fixture. I told Justin about it and he said he'd come out when he finished his game. I tried to take a picture to show Justin but by the time I got my camera, the little guy had laid down from what I assume was exhaustion.


While I waited for Justin, I took some picture of the cats playing in the dark yard. Here's Swirly, afraid to venture off the concrete as usual.

And as usual, Fatty likes to hang out by the fence. Every time I tried to get close to him to take a picture he would dart across the yard because he thought I was going to take him back inside. I finally had to just zoom in on him from far away.


Just what we need, more dandelions.


Her favorite thing to do it roll around on the concrete. I don't know why, but she always rubs her face on the ground and rolls around.


Finally, Justin's game finished and he came outside to help me with the bat situation. Justin decided to take the sides off the light fixture and hope the bat would just leave on its own.


Once the sides were off, the little guy perked up and started to move.


Being a bat, the little guy tried to hang upside down from the light fixture. Too bad he couldn't really hold onto it and he fell onto the patio. He was okay though and started moving right away.


The little guy crawled up onto the step that leads into the house. Once there, Justin tried to usher him into a box so he could take the bat out to one of the trees. The bat, however, was not gonna budge. Its one foot was holding onto the wood and when Justin tried to push it into the box it started hissing and bared its teeth. We decided to leave the box out there in case it wanted shelter. Justin looked this morning and the bat was gone. Hopefully the little guy made it safely somewhere.


We assume it was a baby because it was no larger than a chicken egg. He was really cute and I'm glad we at least gave him a chance to survive.


On a completely unrelated note: The other day we got cards from random people. I guess it was one of those "thank the troops" things.


It's nice to know that in this day and age, with a very unpopular war going on, people actually do care about the troops and support them, even if they don't agree with the war.