Encounters of the bat kind

Last Friday, on reaching home, I had to fit back the freshly laundered carseat cover so HW took Keston upstairs first. When I got up, HW was carrying Keston standing near the door and was very tense. He told me there's a bat in the house and Keston is very scared. So the first thing I did was to carry Keston into my room, turned on the aircon and closed the door. Now, whenever Keston's in my room, he'd go crazy playing with my laptop, dancing and running on the bed, climbing up and down, etc. This time, he kept perfectly still in the position I put him. I kept assuring him that there's nothing to be afraid of and I'll be right back.

Back in the living room, I haven't seen the bat yet and was still in disbelief. I asked HW if he was sure it wasn't a big moth! And then the mighty bat took a short flight, batwings and all, onto the sofa. It tried to burrow itself into the folds of the sofa, I think to seek solace in the darkness. We turned on all the lights and opened the windows...well, HW did. I sunk in a corner screaming out instructions! Every now and then I'd go back into the room to check on Kes and he'd still be sitting in the exact same position, expressionless. It was very very odd behaviour for him. Nevertheless, we had a bat to capture.

While HW was out there keeping watch on the bat, I googled for ways to deal with the bat. I mean, who knows what to do? It's not like you meet a bat everyday, or even every year! HW wanted to whack the bat but heck, it's an animal not an insect...how can? Anyway the internet says to just leave the windows open and eventually the bat will fly away. Huh? What if it doesn't fly away....what if it is still in the house, and appears again the next day? Scrap the idea.

The next solution was a more feasible, yet scarier, option. We had to find a box, use it to cup the bat, and then get a cardboard piece to slot in at the bottom to encase the bat. So I ran around the rooms looking for boxes to slice up. And then came the difficult part-- how to cover the bat when it was currently nestled between the backing and seat of the sofa???

I was scared, but HW was also scared. He kept asking me if shining a torchlight at the bat will kill the bat! haha...really think it's a vampire ah??? He kept asking me to remove the cushions so he can cup the bat, but I die also don't want to be in such close proximity with the bat. So after loads of shouting and shifting the responsibility, he finally managed to yank all the cushions off the sofa and cup the bat.

And then he didn't dare to slot in the cardboard piece underneath. Cos in doing so, the box on top would have to be lifted slightly and we were afraid the bat will wriggle out from the resulting gap. So after loads of trial and error (with an empty box), we finally captured the bat.

The whole process took more than an hour. And in that time, Keston sat in the exact spot on my bed. He did not make a single sound nor movement. His whole body was cold and occassionally he'd tap his chest to signify 'scared scared'.

Finally we had to dispose the bat but none of us wanted to walk too far away with it, or *gasp* let it go in the open. What if it flies back into the house? So we left the box covered on the stairs outside the house, ran home and shut all the windows!!

Keston was obviously in shock....and he became feverish. It took alot of coaxing before he snapped out of it. Before that, he acted like his soul left his body. It was that scary.

The next day, he developed a high fever and vomited out his lunch. He'd take 2 spoons and vomit. Take another 2 spoons and vomit. The doctor said he got a stomache virus. But we think it's the aftermath of shock. In the next few days, Keston totally shunned solids. We were told not to give him milk, but it was the only thing he'd take. But a few times, he'd drink milk and vomit out again. Sigh.

It's been a week but his appetite is not back yet. Sure lose weight!

At 22mths 1wk, he's 12.1kg