Bats!

Yesterday had to be the day from hell. Not only did we have to deal with a bunch of idiots at Walmarts, Wendys and Walgreens (notice all "Ws") but just when I thought the day couldn't get any worse - it did. Around 8 pm last night something flew right past my face. At first I thought it was a bird, but then when it came flying back at me I saw it was a bat! I managed to get the bat out of my room and closed the door with one of my dogs in it while my mom closed her door with the other dog in it. We have cathedral ceilings throughout the house and so it was very difficult to find something long enough to scare the bat with (I am all for catching and releasing animals unharmed as long as no one in my house is threatened.) After almost an hour of trying and having the bat come after me several times I decided to call the town's non-emergency phone number to get someone to help. At first I got a recorded message that basically said call 9-1-1 if it was an emergency or call another number to get a "real" person so I called that last one. The man who picked up sounded like he was 12 (it was like those answering services that doctor's offices have when they are closed.) First he tried to tell me there was no one to help, but I wasn't going to take "no" for an answer and eventually he transferred me to the State's Fish and Wildlife Department. The Fish and Wildlife Department were completely useless and the woman I spoke to was very unprofessional. Apparently, they have nothing in place to send someone to take care of fish or wildlife after regular business hours (maybe they should send a memo to all the fish and wildlife about their hours of operation.) Since it seemed that no official in the state was going to help me I decided to call 9-1-1. The woman there (my state has one 9-1-1 call center so all they do is pass you along to your town) was nice and transferred me to the same idiot at my town that I had dealt with already - although it seems that since the 9-1-1 operator was also on the line the guy had to take this seriously and said he would send a cop.

About 30 minutes later a town policeman did come. He was nice and tried to get the bat down from the high ceiling, but had nothing long enough. He used one of my fire extinguishers, but all that did was make the whole place smoky, set-off the fire alarm and coat everything in white (even today the white stuff seems to be settling from the ceiling and getting on everything.) After an hour with no luck the cop called some friends he knows (other cops from neighboring towns.) They came about 45 minutes later and within 10 minutes had the bat off the ceiling and out my front door. Apparently, one of the cops was from New Zealand and a wildlife expert so he knew what to do.

I did a basic clean-up of the house last night, but woke-up this morning to find lots of white everywhere  (it looks like snow in the house.) I will have to scrub every nook and cranny from the top-down to get it all cleaned up. I also called our pest company and will set something up for them to come and make sure there aren't more bats or holes where they can come into the house from.

While the cops and the 9-1-1 operator were nice and helpful everyone else wasn't. It's "good" to know that when you need help from the trained, paid professionals you wouldn't get any help unless you "fight" for it.