To the Bat Cave!

My supervisor is on vacation, and I have been so productive that I just haven't had time to blog.

However, this morning went differently, and I decided it was worth blogging about.

Lately I have been rather lazy. Not getting up to go to the gym, lolling in bed until after 7:00 am. But not this morning. My roommates and I discovered a very effective alarm: a bat in our apartment.

Shortly after 6:00am there was a knocking at my door. "Jenny. Jenny, please wake up. There's a bat in our apartment ... again."

I fairly leaped out of bed. Sure enough, sleeping happily in the butler's pantry was a little brown bat, hanging upside down on the trim by the swinging door between the panry and our living room (it's an oddly configured apartment, what can I say?)

For a little brown bat s/he was quite a large speciment. All folded up and sleeping (quite cute, really) s/he was about the lenght of my hand (not just my palm but extended fingers as well).

(I really wanted to take a picture of the bat, but I didn't want to disturb it. Alas. Maybe next time.)

Last time we had a bat, s/he was very upset, flying around the living room, anxious to get free and catch bugs. When we called Animal Patrol, we were told that if you can get a bat to settle down and fall asleep, you can walk right up to it and trap in a piece of tupperware, then let it go out a window.

That didn't work last time because the bat was so riled up. Instead we closed it in the room, took a screen off a window, and eventually s/he found her way outside.

This morning the tupperware method worked perfectly. Fearless Sophie (whose dad has done research with bats, thus she is genetically disposed to such things) walked up, trapped it in the tupperware, and then let it out the window.

Easy as pie.

And since I was awake, I took a walk around the pond.

All in all it was a lovely morning.