Bat Story (long)

[Steve @ His Desk]

Ivrea, Italy, 18.September.1990

By Craig Hockenberry

This is a true story. I wish it weren't.

Last night I had a little trouble getting to sleep, and it wasn't a case of
insomnia.

I had just finished brushing my teeth and was heading back to my bedroom for a
much needed rest. Upon entering the room, I switched on the light and noticed
a black object flying around the light in the center of the room. I thought
to myself, "no problem, just a small bird that will fly out of the room when
I open the window."

After looking at this object for a few seconds, I realized that it was a BAT.
My reaction was, and I quote, "SHIT!". Milliseconds later, I was in the next
room looking at a closed door and wondering how the hell I was going to get
rid of this thing...

The window in the bedroom was closed and locked, hence it could not be opened
from the outside of the house. This left me with one alternative .. going back
in and flushing out the BAT.

I returned to the bathroom and got a large towel which I put over my head. I
slowly entered the room and started shaking the towel over my head while the
BAT circled above. Too bad that bats can't see .. the sight of a 6'6" male in
his underware hiding underneath a bath towel would cause any normal animal to
die of laughter. I must have looked like an epileptic King Faud.

I made my way, as quickly as possible, to the window and succeeded in opening
it. After returning to the safety of the next room, I realized I was dealing
with a STUPID BAT. The damn thing would not fly out of the room.

My next brainstorm was to scare the STUPID BAT out of the bedroom. So, the man
with the shaking towel on his head re-enters the room and tries to scare a
STUPID BAT. Notice that I never said this was a clever brainstorm.

After trying for several minutes (that seemed like hours), the STUPID BAT is
still circling and I'm more scared than the STUPID BAT.

I am running out of brainstorms at this point. That is until my cat walks up
to the door and looks at me with an expression that can only be described as:
"why are you standing at your bedroom door with a towel on your head?" Cats
are good at recognizing abnormal behaviour.

My cat, Roxy, is also quite a good hunter. She regularly brings dead objects
into the house for inspection (that's another good story). By now, you
probably are having the same brainstorm that I was last night. She can kill a
moth as it flys through the air why can't she KILL the STUPID BAT as it flys
through the air.

At first, she is a little confused as I toss her into the bedroom to do her
instinctive duty. However, as soon as the STUPID BAT goes into his flight
pattern, she makes several stunning leaps into the air to KILL the STUPID
BAT. Unlike her owner (who has finally realized that a towel on the head is not
really needed against a STUPID BAT) she gives up and sits in the middle of the
bed looking at the STUPID BAT hanging upside down on curtains and her owner
peeking through the door. I'm sure she is thinking: "You are 6'6" tall. YOU
can reach the STUPID BAT".

I hate it when my cat has these great ideas.

So, I slowly enter the room .. the STUPID BAT remains on the curtain ..
Roxy is waiting patiently for an opportunity to attack .. I get within a
couple of feet of the STUPID BAT .. the towel is wadded into an efficent,
STUPID BAT KILLING projectile (thank God for rec.pyrotechnics) .. I'm ready to
attack .. the towel is launched .. and the STUPID BAT comes straight at me!
And I don't have a towel on my head!

I don't know how, but I got out bedroom alive. I quickly went to the bathroom
and got more ammo. I really want to KILL the STUPID BAT.

So, I slowly enter the room .. the STUPID BAT remains on the curtain ..
but this time I notice that the STUPID BAT is stuck in the curtain .. IT CAN'T
MOVE!!! I find myself thanking God that this is a STUPID BAT .. if it were a
SMART BAT, I'd be dead.

Confident that I have won this battle, I slowly walk up to the STUPID BAT and
wrap it up in a towel. I then quickly walk to the window and throw the entire
bundle out the window. Within seconds, the window is closed and the sense of
saftey overwhelms me.

Before retiring for the night, there is one last thing to do. I need to collect
all the ammo (towels) that have been used in this adventure. After putting away
the towels that are inside the house, I remembered that there is still one
more outside that used to contain a STUPID BAT.

It's so dark outside, I don't even bother to put on a pair of pants so that I
won't offend the neighbors. I easily find the towel in the faint light coming
from the bedroom light and start to pick it up carefully by the corners. I
want to shake it out to make EXTRA sure that the STUPID BAT is not still
inside the towel. After all this, I'll be damned if I'm going to take the
STUPID BAT back into the house.

Suddenly, I feel a small fur covered object rub against my arm! It makes me
jump about 3 feet and nearly gives me a heart attack. After recovering, I
slowly approached the towel to find Roxy looking up at me with the expression:
"Thanks for putting this towel outside for me to sleep on!"

I wanted to KILL that STUPID CAT!

--
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