I've Been Chased By A Bat!!

Our routine every weekday morning was to eat breakfast, clean the kitchen, and start our homeschool day.  This day was no different than any other.  We had all just sat down at the kitchen table for our history lesson.  Chris looked out the window and said, “Star has something in his mouth!”  Sure enough Star, our short-haired black cat, was walking toward the house with something brown in his mouth.  We went outside to see.  Star had dropped the animal on the ground.  I immediately saw that it was a bat.  I was surprised.  I had expected a bird. 

At the time I recalled that a naturalist at Bennett Springs State Park told us that bats can carry rabies and it is best not to handle them.  Stephanie ran to get me something to put over the top of the bat.  We did this to keep Star from grabbing the bat again. Scooping his cat up into his arms, Chris (and Hannah) ran into the house.  They were observing Stephanie and I outside the big picture window.

I put a plastic egg crate over the bat.  And as I looked at it I noticed that there were three bats all rolled up together; a baby bat, an adolescent bat, and the mother were attached together.  At that moment the mother bat carrying her babies escaped from under the egg crate and flew right at me!  Escaping was my only option.  I ran a short distance and I turned around to see the direction in which the bat would fly.  I was thinking the bat would just fly off somewhere.  But No!  I gasped, the bat was chasing me!  I began running in a circle.  I screamed help when I saw the bat’s teeth imagining them trying to bite me.

I sprinted in a circle several times.  Looking behind me many times and still seeing the bat’s teeth.  I hollered, “Open the back door!”  No one did.  Stephanie was jumping up and down on the back porch, while Chris and Hannah watched out the window.  I thought I am going to have to do this all by myself!  I opened the door and jumped inside and fell on the floor banging my legs up.  Stephanie was still outside jumping up and down in excitement.  However the bat did not chase her.  The bat flew over into a nearby tree and rested hanging upside down!

Later that week we visited with the naturalist at Bennett Springs State Park.  I informed her that bats do chase people.  She insisted no they do not.  She pointed out that the bat was traumatized by being carried in the mouth of a cat.  Okay I can try to empathize.  Even though I rescued the bat from the cat by placing the egg crate over him, the bat felt trapped again.  However, when the bat did gain freedom again, it was just trying to get oriented.  In most instances I believe bats do not chase people.  However, I think this was the exception.