The "Vampires are Coming!" Story

It was an ordinary day. We had bats in the house again at 925 Janet Ave. REAL LIVE BATS!! We get these unwanted guests frequently. Not sure why they pick on us or how they get in, but they do. And, they freak us out! They really do look like vampires when you look at them up close. Except for the fangs. I know they do good, but they don't have to do it in my house. We have had many incidents of the bats, but a few are memorable. Tad, our youngest, was watching TV in our basement with the lights out and all of a sudden something flew right past his ear. Took another swoop at him and he was up the steps as fast as he could go. Never found that one! Carol was home by herself one evening, watching TV in the living room when she noticed the cats siting in the doorway to the dining room with their heads slowly moving side to side. All of a sudden it headed into the living room, past her, and up the steps. She didn't dare go up the steps until someone came home and she had reinforcements in her battle. That one disappeared also. Another time we were both in the living room and one flew in from the kitchen and up our stairs. We did a systematic search of the second floor and found the bat in our daughter's bedroom hanging in her closet between layers of clothes. That one I managed to get into our butterfly net and released outside so he could find his way back in again. Oh, well! Twice we had bats that got into our covers that I had made to cover our radiators. The front of the cover had a decorative mesh. They would hang on the inside of the covers and were easy to see, but very hard to catch. So....I would take a sharp object and stab them through the cover. Hard part was taking the cover apart to retrieve the dead bat. The most memorable escapade was one evening we were awakened by a thumping noise in our third floor where our two sons slept. "What is that noise?" I asked Carol. We listened for some time and then she said, "Something is flying around upstairs and Gladys is jumping up to try to get it." Gladys is our Siamese cat who is a good jumper and very swift at catching the bats. I headed up the steps slowly and sure enough, the bat kept circling the room and the cat kept jumping. Didn't time it quite right yet, but I knew she would soon. Downstairs I ran to grab the butterfly net. Got low on the floor and when I saw the bat circle again, I raised the net in the path of the flight. Viola! Caught the thing, much to the dismay of the cat. Quickly released it outside into the dark night to haunt us again. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.