Batty Batty Bat

Have you ever felt like you were in the twilight zone? That was me last night. I came home after being out in "il centro" with Gigi and a few friends. We went for a bite to eat and a spritz before declaring ourselves completely exhausted and going home to bed.

I went to bed at 11:15pm I was out like a light and sleeping peacefully when all of a sudden I heard Gigi screaming and slamming doors. I was vaguely aware that something was going on, but was too tired to investigate. I was just about to return to dreamland when Gigi came bursting through my door at around 12:30am!

"Sarah!!! Are you awake???"

"Yeah..." I answered, not really sure if I was or wasn't.

"[Something, something, something] BATS!!!"

"What?"

"Sarah, there's BATS flying around in my room!!!"

"WHAT???" Much more awake now.

Gigi had left her window open, and apparently a bat had flown in while she was sleeping. She heard the flying noise and turned on the light only to discover that there were about 6 bats flying around in her room!!! So she took the bedspread off her bed, put it over her head and crawled out of her room.

She made me peak in her room just to make sure that she wasn't seeing things and indeed, there were a bunch of bats flapping about in her bedroom. I half expected The Count to pipe up in the background with "One. One Bat. Two. Two Bats. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha" *add thunder and lightning here*

We tried banging on the door and setting off my alarm clock in hopes that the noise would make them leave, but it didn't work. At around 1am I decided to go online and research about getting rid of bats. I had to laugh at the advice I found since it said the first thing to do is remain calm. A little late for that! It suggested turning on the lights and making sure the windows were wide open.

We went back to Gigi's room to turn on the light, and that is when we noticed the window was only half open (we have double- door style windows)! I suggested that Gigi use my umbrella to shelter herself with while she opened the windows all the way. So there she was with a broomstick crawling on the floor holding an umbrella prodding the windows open. It was quite a sight. We hoped that the advice was accurate and that the bats would indeed leave on their own accord. By this time it was around 1:30am so we went back to bed. Gigi slept on the couch.

When we woke up this morning, the bats were gone! Wa-hoo!!! But then I noticed a black little lump on top of the window. Gigi got the stick and poked it. And a wing flopped over the side! We both freaked out and thought it was a dead bat with a broken wing. Gigi poked it again and it started flying around!!! AAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! Oh yeah, right. Remain calm.

After about 10 minutes, we looked back in her room and saw that it had latched itself to the wall and was sleeping upside down.

We set about to follow more advice from the internet and trap the bat in something and slide cardboard over the opening so we could toss the bat outside. It took us about 10 minutes to locate something big enough that we could cover with a folder. So Gigi got on her bed and trapped the bat in her garbage can. Of course it totally started going wild and scratching, flapping, and clawing around inside. I slid the folder over the opening and we both gingerly carried it over to the window and tossed it out. And away flew the bat! Talk about an adrenaline rush first thing in the morning.

I still can't get over the fact that we were terrorized by bats! It was totally freaky. I mean, I can understand one lost bat, but six!!! I still laugh every time I think about it. I guess we know not to sleep with our windows open now.