Bed, Bat And Beyond!

A few mornings ago, I went out on the deck to water “not as pretty as last year” flower boxes. You can’t win ‘em all! I looked down and saw a tiny sort of face trying to come up between the slats of the deck. I squatted down to get a closer look. At first, I thought it was a tree frog. Easy save, I said to myself. I can just put it in our pond. Oh, what fools we mortals be! It was not a tree frog.

I gently freed the tiny creature from it’s struggles, and it spread out in my hand. I found myself looking at a tiny baby bat! All babies are cute – yes – a bit of a stretch in this case. All I could think of was #1 Why me?! #2 And, now what?! My mind was racing and the tiny creature was gasping. I laid it in a damp paper towel, mainly to keep its body moist. My first thought was to just give it sugar water in an eye dropper and tuck it in my bra. I debated what few options I had and finally decided to leave it in the paper towel, crawl under the deck and place it back where it came from.

So, baby bat in hand I went down under the deck, bumped my head, and placed the loosely half covered baby among the ferns growing in the shade. I looked all around for signs of a mama, but to no avail. Back in the house, I thought what if I’d done the wrong thing! Of course! Calling the fish and game people got me nowhere. But, maybe the zoo could help. Husband arrives in kitchen and I tell him. That restarts the tears and I think the bra-eye dropper idea would have been better. He stares at me in disbelief – not the first time, believe me.

So, I call the zoo. As soon as someone answers I start crying again. Finally, I get my story out. And, the nicest voice in the world transfers me to the resident bat expert. I sob-out my story – apologizing all the way. She is very sympathetic and quickly reassures me that I did exactly the right thing. Its mother might even come back for it (more sobbing). I managed to blubber out “should I check on it?” “No!” She replied, “Absolutely not. You did the best thing.” I thanked her profusely. Anyone listening would have thought that I had just won Publishers Clearing House!

Eventually, I went to the office where our kids work for us. As I told them the story, tears flowed all over again. I showed them the phone camera photo I had taken. Daughter Lacy asked me if I wanted her to look under the deck to see if it was gone. “Absolutely not!” I said knowing that if the worst had happened, I was ill equipped to handle it! Son Chris put his two cents worth in. “Oh, Mom, you have to write about this and here’s your title.” I could not top his suggestion and I laughed, sort of. I can just hear my parents in Heaven saying, “Well, she hasn’t changed!”

Last Sunday, daughter and I walked though Sandy Mountain Festival. We came to a booth with little needle felted toys for sale. Sure enough my daughter found a tiny black felt bat and bought it for me. And, so my “wild life” continues. I still think the bra would have worked!