i can't make this stuff up

The pooches and I have a routine in the mornings. I get up while they lounge in bed, I shower and get dressed, and then I spend 10 minutes coaxing them out from under the covers and off the bed. We go downstairs, I make myself a bowl of cereal or oatmeal, and we head out to the front yard while I sit on the stoop and eat my breakfast and they run around like banshees. Right before I leave, we come back inside, I fix them breakfast, do last minute things like brush my teeth, organize my lunch, and I leave for the day while they are munching away.

This morning, Tango stood patiently by the door as I poured myself the bowl of cereal, but when I turned the knob and slowly opened it, I heard this awfully loud screeching sound. It sounded as if it were coming from the door itself, or from something inside the front entryway. At almost the same moment, the phone rang, and I turned away to pick up the call. I started chattering away to Josh, and walked back to the door, and as I reached to open the screen, I again heard the loud screeching. I leaned close to the screen door to see what was outside of the door making the awful noises. As I came close to pressing my nose against the metal, I saw something out of the corner of my eye.





Yup, a bat had wedged itself into our screen door, and was protesting loudly that someone was disturbing his daytime rest.




First I screamed, then I hopped up and down, then I slammed the door shut until I figured out that, in fact, it wouldn't be able to get to me on the other side of the door. And then I got the camera.

It didn't like the camera flash, and proceeded to screech loudly every time the flash went off.


After 15 minutes of alternating banging and flashing, it eventually jumped out from the screen door and onto the front porch. While on the front porch, it started crawling around in circles, with no apparent goal to depart from our front step. At that point, I started to worry that perhaps this particular bat had rabies or was injured. Ironically, about 2 weeks ago I saw a special on Martha Stewart on the different species of bats, and how helpful they are in their bug-eating capabilities. That being said, while I'm grateful that this bat digests the many mosquitoes that are out these days, I'd prefer that he not hang out on my front stoop.

I called my town's Animal Control, and their suggestion was that I swoosh it off the steps with a broom. I assured him, though, that I didn't think my ob/gyn would want me outside playing around with a potentially rabid FLYING animal, so he agreed to come out and help it along.

So that's what I did this morning. How about you?