The Bat Cave

Our final weekend of our summer vacation turned into something very interesting

it really started Wednesday night

I awoke to the blinds rattling quite loudly and was concerned a storm was brewing

as I opened my eyes and tried to shake the grogginess I saw something black on the blinds

it took me a bit to realize there was no way this was a frog, which was my first thought, at the size of plum

I grabbed Kevin, "wake up, what is that"

Kevin startled awake by my fear and after a minute answered 

"it's just a moth" (yeah from the amazon maybe)

then our black thing flew around the room

"A BAT"

Kevin jumped out of bed and hit the lights as I pulled the blankets over my head

Kevin in his quick thinking pulled the screen out of the window and dropped it over Casey

then swiftly closed the door as we waited for this stray bat to fly out of the window

Gross, but we got him out and soon went back to sleep

Thursday night (the night of the big Hail storm in Airdrie) we awaited the Tatro's arrival for our weekend of fun in the sun (little did we know)....

Thursday night we enjoyed some wine and some fire and planned for our fun weekend

Late into the night I woke to rustling

and thought to myself

Self, ugh another bat, I'm too tired we'll get him later, since it was certainly only a single bat stuck somewhere outside

but I felt the onset of some heartburn that I knew had to be dealt with

so I hauled myself out of bed, opened the door, listened to the rustling that sounded dangerously close, but no visual

climbed the stairs and flicked on the lights

imagine a scene from the movies, such as an Indiana Jones type

as bats fly up the stairs from the basement directly at me (ok, not directly at me, but when they fly up the stairs over you it feels like it's directly at you and intended to scare you)

I shrieked like I've never shrieked before and jumped behind the wall (the jump was not an easy feat in my present condition, but griping fear took over, but I do recall the searing pain at this unwanted movement)

then my mind starts going

"shoot I screamed a girly scream so loud that all the kids are certainly awake and now they will be scared too"

"I hope I screamed loud enough that Kevin will rescue me"

"I hope I didn't wake up everyone"

"umm....how many bats just flew up at me"

"where are those gross bats now"

"OK get a grip (rustling and scrambling coming from upstairs), it's just a bat, peak around the corner already and see where it went"

peaking and another shriek

"that not A bat, that's alot of Bats!!!"

Matthew yelling from upstairs: um, is everything ok?

Me: BATS, there are BATS EVERYWHERE

Kevin from the basement: "AGAIN" (The word again would imply that we had bats everywhere in the past I think he missed the plural s on the end of my response BATS)

more scrambling and bats flapping everywhere

Matthew: I'm coming

more scrambling

Kevin comes up and Matthew comes down in what felt like forever for them to collect themselves

Kevin: Logan close the door! (later in our story you will learn why keeping doors closed was such an important detail on our crazy bat weekend)

Casey is now crying and Tatro kids are yelling what's going on

Ellie: Just close the door and go to bed (they do by the way)

As the bats began to settle there were 5 behind the snow shoes on the wall and others elsewhere and some still flying (we counted about 8 in total, but it felt like a million)

Kevin and Logan in their boxers frantically open the doors, windows and pull out all the screens

Matthew, who took the time to get fully clothed, pulls the snow shoes off the wall

Matthew: "They won't fly into anything I'll contain them"

as he uses the snow shoes over his head as an air control officer to guide the bats to the windows or door - this alone was quite funny

(an fyi - bats get easily confused and disoriented in the lights and loud noise so the shrieking and yelling that took place in the now very bright cabin was not helping our situation - a fact we learned later and explains why the either didn't fly out or chose to fly back in after flying out)

Kevin runs and grabs a fish net and Logan runs and get gloves

I have moved to the kitchen against the wall to watch where they land and yell out words of encouragement

Ellie grabs her camera and is giggling at this scene, which is not helping our fits of laughter mixed with fear and annoyance at this point

Me with my arms out and helpless "It's on me, it's on me"

Kevin in his sarcastic tone: it's not on you (like I was overreacting, as if its possible to overreact in this situation)

Me: No it's on me I am looking right at it (you don't make this stuff up)

Matthew: it is on you, don't move

as he pokes and prods the bat off of the front of my shirt

the bat finally lets go and flies up towards Matthew

so he does what anyone holding a large snow shoe would do

and swats that bat mid-flight like a birdie in "bat"minton across the room knocking it unconscious - oops

at this point we are laughing so hard we cannot focus on the bats and need to take a minute to re-focus

If you've not had the opportunity to watch "The Great Outdoors" with John Candy I highly recommend it.  The scene with the grizzly bear in the cabin is painfully similar to this.  But it's one grizzly vs. our 8+ bats.  Almost would take my chances with a grizzly.

after awhile we finally get control of the situation and get all the bats to fly out of the house and try to get settled and get some sleep

surely we must be rid of bats by now

Casey always eats about 5:00am so why would this morning be any different

I get up and feed her and get her settled back to sleep

just as I turn the light out and start to doze I feel the unwelcome breeze from a bat wing as it flies past

another Shriek

Kevin leaps out of bed, I grab a blanket to throw over Casey

Kevin runs upstairs and grabs the fishnet

with one fast swoop he catches it mid flight

Now we are up and getting out of bed and quite annoyed

It's not funny anymore and we are on a mission to make sure every flying squeaking bat is out of our place so we scour every nook and cranny and Kevin set on a mission to seal every gap and opening in the exterior he can find.

and throughout the day and the next we get stray bats randomly showing up and flying overhead

We set out on our Bat Hunt.  Now that we know they must be coming in around the fire place we rounded up the neighbours and sat and to watch for our bats who start flying about 9:30-10:00.  We wanted to be sure they weren't flying in and out and that Kevin had adequately blocked their entrance.

The boys getting the bats out of the cold air vent in the side of chimney, which had a metal mesh over it.  They kept trying to escape this way all weekend, first 5 and then 2 and then a few more and then one at a time every few hours until we couldn't hear anymore.

a pesky bat we caught

the handy sign made by our neighbour to block our fireplace

the cabin is now officially known as The Bat Cave

Bat catching juice

Bat catching snacks

Bat catching equipment

Encouraging baby snuggles

Kevin has tirelessly tried to catch a Pike and little Norah is the first to do it with her little Barbie rod

The bat hunt continues

and some restful time at the beach where no bats can bug us

Bat girls

We are fairly confident we are now rid of our bats and they cannot get back into "the bat cave", but failing that we will now be selling admission for "the Bat experience" through our newly formed company "Bed, Bat and Beyond"

Kevin aka Batman will be your friendly Bat guide

and the Bat jokes went on all weekend long...