“Bats in the belfry…”

As we were preparing to leave the house last night for a nine70 outreach in Old Town Fort Collins when something “wild” happened! Denise asked me, “Why is there a bird flying around our living room?” It wasn’t…

Yesterday afternoon a pest extermination company had been at our new residence doing a “bat exclusion” from our chimney. They plugged up all the entry points and installed a “one way” exit so that the bats could leave our chimney but not return. Some of the bats woke up last night and decided that they didn’t like the new installations, so they crawled down the chimney into our basement, and came into the house instead!

Denise’s response to the “there’s a bat flying around in our living room” crisis was to scream and hide under a blanket. I, on the other hand, bravely ran out of the room leaving Denise to fend for herself. Ha! Not really. (I called the exterminators.)

After running around the house waving a towel for a few minutes I finally got our flying houseguest to go into the guest room. Feeling much safer having the “issue” behind a closed door, I strolled into the kitchen to develop a “bat trap.” Suddenly another bat, who had been peacefully “hanging out” on the ceiling began flying wildly around the room as well.

Eventually they landed and we captured them with the sophisticated “Tupperware bowl maneuver,” releasing them into the night.

“Bats in the belfry…” It’s an old English phrase that, according to the internet (which is always accurate…), means someone is behaving oddly… At least we have a good reason!

Our whole week has been a little bit “batty.”