Late last night, or early this morning, depending on your individual perspective, at around 1:30, Pete and I awakened to hear the cat, Günter, scurrying around the house.

This was not unusual, as he prefers to use the litter box when no one is looking — yes, the boy has bathroom issues. Needless to say, sometimes he likes to get away from the box as quickly as possible after making a deposit and he races upstairs, all freaked out over what just came out of his rear end. (His littermate/brother, Axel, was usually the one to cover up after him — I should have named them Felix and Oscar.)

Thankfully, Günter’s scurrying about late at night is only an occasional occurrence, but nonetheless disruptive and annoying.

Finally he jumped into our bed and seemed to settle down. Only thing was, I still heard noises coming from the kitchen.

Uh oh.

I went to the kitchen, flipped on the light and immediately saw something flying around near the back door and window. I freaked, flipped the light off and yelled for Pete (yes, a totally girl-y thing to do). It was either a bird or a bat.

He got up, we flipped the light switch again and it flew into our TV room, which is right off the kitchen and next to the back door. Pete bravely followed it in there and shut the door. He informed me that it was indeed a bat.

After it circled the ceiling a few times, it finally settled on the perfect perch for a bat: our picture rail, which in this room and the other two bedrooms, are mounted almost like crown molding with just 1/4–1/2″ of space between it and the ceiling.

So, first things first: how do we get it out of the house?

As I said, it was in the TV room, right next to the back door, and luckily the back door opened in the right direction away from the TV room doorway instead of into it. We propped open the storm door, grabbed a sheet, draped it over the back door and taped the sheet around the TV room doorway to guide the bat out the door and prevent it from flying back into the kitchen.

As I crouched on the floor, Pete used a broom to try to guide it out of the room and out the door. But no, it just kept circling close to the ceiling with an occasional swoop in the wrong direction (usually toward me).

After a few minutes, it was obviously getting tired and started circling lower and lower until suddenly and to our great relief it found the door and flew right out.

Now, the big question: How did it get in the house??

Followed by more questions:

• The dining room door was closed for the night (closing off the living room, dining room and attic from the rest of the house), so if it came from somewhere in the attic, could it have flown down the stairs, through the hallway and into the kitchen before we went to bed without our notice?
• Our chimney (for the furnace) doesn’t have a cap, so could it have dropped in from there somehow?
• Could there be new openings from the construction that have invited it in?
• Was this a single, freak occurrence or is it nesting in here somewhere? (please, no)
• If it is nesting, are there more, and are there babies? (please, please, PLEASE, no!)

From a quick check online, we’ll need to watch the house around sunset to see if any fly out from a tiny hole (the size of your thumb?!). I’m really hoping we won’t, and that we won’t have to take it further.

Tags: problems, wildlife