More Heat, More Bats

The hot humid weather continued yesterday.  Despite having every window in the house wide open all night long, the house only cooled down to 77F by the morning when I closed the windows.  Normally, the cold nights cool the house down to 69F and then the house stays comfortable all day regardless of the daytime heat.  We didn't stand a chance yesterday and the air conditioner kicked on before noon.

Flash becomes very lethargic in the heat.  When Brett did the evening feeding, it was still in the mid 90s.  Flash dragged himself out of his stall into the pasture and walked right past the hay, down to the sandy area, where he lowered himself to the ground with a groan and stayed for an hour or so.  When the sun settled behind the trees and dropped out of sight below the ridge, he got up and ate his hay.

After feeding, Brett went down the mountain to a farewell dinner for someone at work.  My toe is still bandaged up like a tootsie pop and sore, so I stayed home.  After Brett left, I grabbed some plastic wrap from the kitchen to cover my toe bandage, and a rubber band from the desk, and headed down the hall to take a shower.  That's when I met up with the bat.  I don't think he left the other night -- Brett says he never actually saw the bat go out our bedroom door; he just assumed it had done so when he didn't see if flying around anymore.  I think it was resting on a ceiling beam.  Regardless, it was back.  I wrote about last night's encounter in a poem, on my poetry website here.

A few people have expressed concern about the bats and rabies.  Bats do carry rabies, but it isn't common (at least not here).  The rate is half of one percent of the bats in our area.  A bat in the house that seems content to be there is not a good thing and should be tested for rabies.  A bat in the house that wants the hell out -- that's a normal healthy bat.  The brown bats that live in the eaves of our front porch are beneficial and we have no desire to make them leave.  One brown bat can eat 600 bugs in a night; mosquitos, beetles, scorpions, and more.  The bats sleep during the day and come out at sundown, flying away over the ranch like commuters tumbling out of a subway and scattering all directions to go to work.

After the bat was safely outside, and after my shower, I made myself dinner.  I cooked up some onions, added a few chard leaves, Italian sausage and a handful of cherry tomatoes.  Then I cracked a few eggs into the mess, stirred it around a bit, topped it with some grated Parmesan cheese, popped it under the broiler to brown and scattered some fresh chopped basil on top.  And I poured myself a big glass of wine.