Oh no! Not again!

[blackberry444]

I got up late this morning and as I was leaving the bathroom, I saw Bramble and his henchcat, Morgan at the foot of the stairs.   There was obviously something jammed into the place where the bottom riser meets the floor and it was clicking furiously.  The cats were darting at it and retreating without doing anything much, and the clicking got faster and faster.

When I went down to see, I found that someone had caught another bat, but this time in broad sunny daylight.

I retrieved the bat and it didn't seem very damaged, although it's difficult to tell with something which looks like a broken umbrella to start with.  I locked the cats in and put the bat out on the roof and it started to "walk" along the roof.  Later, when I looked from the office window, it appeared to have gone.

Charles and I went out shortly afterwards to check whether it had really gone, only to find that it was hanging onto the overlap roofing felt and could easily be caught by the cats, so I tried to affix him to the shed wall beneath the over hang,  I didn't have much success until I realised that I was trying to hang him upside down, but eventually he was safe.

We went out a few hours later to check and he had gone.  The first bat which we thought had died had disappeared as well and Charles doesn't think it was in a place the cats could have fished it out of.

How on earth can they catch bats?  Surely they don't normally fly low enough for a cat on a shed roof or a wall to catch them?  I don't even know which of them caught it.  I imagine it must have been Bramble, but Morgan was certainly joining in without being warned off by Bramble.

I do hope it doesn't happen again or I shall have to get the Batman involved!

Comments

[cat63.livejournal.com]

How on earth can they catch bats? Surely they don't normally fly low enough for a cat on a shed roof or a wall to catch them?

Oh yes. I've had one fly parallel with my trike once when I was riding home in the dark, and that's barely a foot off the ground...

I expect they'll fly as low as they need to in order to catch the insects they eat - their echo-location will usually stop them hitting the floor.

If it happens again it might be an idea to call the RSPCA - even if they don't come out they might have some advice.

[femsc.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. There's a bat rescue thingy I think - though I don't know what they call themselves. Hang on though, these people http://www.nwt.org.uk/ are a mine of information about all sorts of wildlife in your area, including broken umbrellas. Or was that who you meant by the Batman?

[blackberry44.livejournal.com]

I was thinking more of asking Martin-next-door-but-one who works for the council in some kind of conservation role if he knew someone I could call.

Failing that, asking the Council's wiildlife people.

[hooloovoo_42]

Batman will swoop out of the sky and grab Morgan and/or Bramble and cart them off to the Gotham State Penitentiary.

[blackberry44.livejournal.com]

I *have* warned them both of this possibility!

[k425.livejournal.com]

Your description of the bat made me giggle.

[blackberry44.livejournal.com]

Good.

The way they look makes me giggle.

I hated having to pick it up, because it was so small and delicate I was afraid I would damage it's tiny legs or something. It would have bitten me if it could. I hadn't realised they have so many sharp teeth.