Well, Kitty tried to summon another familiar today. I went upstairs to grab the USB keyboard from the alcove in our bedroom, and I noticed Kitty in there on the floor. Now, this may not seem too unusual to you, but if you realize that Kitty spends most of her time in her room on her bed or in the living room on the couch, then you’d also realize that finding her on the floor of our room is somewhat odd. Even odder was the fact that she was near the door under the light switch rather than on the bed or dresser where she normally is if she’s in our room. So I said hi to her and asked her what she was up to, but she wasn’t paying any attention to me. She stared at the window behind the bed instead. So I looked over there thinking she’d spotted a bug when I saw what had arrested her attention: a brown bat hanging from the blinds just over the bed. Dippy.

So I grabbed the keyboard and wandered downstairs, telling Ian there was a bat up there while grabbing a long-sleeved shirt and sneakers. Ian put his sneakers on as well, and while I went to grab the broom, planning to nudge the bat off the blinds, Ian went upstairs to grab a sheet from Kitty’s room to toss over it. Of course, when we got to the bedroom, the bat was circling the room with Kitty in the center watching in fascination. We grabbed the cat and tossed her in the bathroom, then Ian and I got one of the windows open to shoo it out. By this point, the bat had settled on the back of the bedroom door, so Ian tried to toss the sheet over it and pull it down so he could toss it out, but it got loose and recommenced circling, except now it was circling Ian. Dippier.

I kept one sheet up over the bedroom door to catch it in case it tried to fly out that way, and Ian tried to toss his sheet over it many times. Finally, he just smacked it out of the air and it landed near the window. Tossing the sheet over it, he scooped it up and flicked the sheet out the window, tossing the bat out. It landed on the corner of the roof. It may be kind of injured, but well, it’s kind of hard to get a bat out of the house in the first place. So this makes bat number two in this house. The first was a little sick looking, but this one was much healthier looking. That makes me feel a little better because if we were to get bit, it’d be less likely that we’d catch something nasty. So the bat’s gone, Kitty’s depressed on the couch beside me, and I think Ian’s heartrate is finally getting back to normal. I’m not sure what’s wrong with us that the places we live attract critters (Crawford: mice and bats; Oak: a pigeon; Ohio: bats), but it’s more than a little irritating. Oh well, tonight’s adventure is over and it’s back to typing up notes for the novel. I’ve got some more articles to read on heteropaternal superfecundation to read. Later!