Batilda or Stellaluna?
August 8, 2007
She’s Baaaaaack! And happily snoozing away. Or is she a new friend?
Stay tuned … the dusk is near.
ETA: Apparently WordPress won’t let us embed You Tube videos either. If you’d like to see more of Stellaluna, click here and tip your head to the left. [sorry, I'm a first time You-Tuber.]
This is for Mel, and anyone else who’s interested in bats. Here’s what I learned tonight:
1) If you turn the light off, bats will move around. Light on: stillness. Light off: movement. and so on.
2) Bats don’t understand that bloggers need light to take pictures and video.
3) Bats wake up like the rest of us: twitch, stretch, bathe (aka lick various body parts), eat, and fly out of the house.
4) Bats clean themselves just like cats. They lick, lick, lick, and then do that cool lick-my-foot then rub-my-head thing.
5) They have five fingers on each hand/foot. Each finger is opposable. Think about that.
6) Their wings are almost translucent, and crinkly - exactly this shirt I almost bought at J. Jill.
7) My bat is named Stellaluna.
7) She’s a brunette.
I intimidate her. I left the room for one freakin’ minute and she was gone. I should’ve left the spotlight on.
G’night Stellaluna. Go find your Mommy.
Entry Filed under: It's All About Me, Ms. 1890. .
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1.
Suzanne | August 8, 2007 at 7:30 pm
Oh they’re so cute! But heed the health warnings left by a commenter on the earlier post.
2.
Cheryl | August 8, 2007 at 7:54 pm
That picture is kind of creeping me out. I think it’s the added effect of the reflection of the hand in the bat or something. Whatever it is, I’m getting the heeby jeebies.
3.
Mel | August 8, 2007 at 8:21 pm
Do you know how jealous I am right now? Just don’t let Little Man or the dogs play with her.
Also, I found that Bat Conservation International has species profiles that you can narrow down by state to figure out what species you might be dealing with. It’s too hard to tell from the photo.
http://www.batcon.org/SPprofiles/index.asp
4.
Lisa | August 8, 2007 at 8:22 pm
She’s back…..yuk. No more sermons on health….just find out how she got in and close all the gaps…..
5.
Kat | August 8, 2007 at 8:48 pm
I love bats. They are awesome at keeping down the population of West Nile and EEE virus bearing mosquitoes. As long as they are OUTSIDE your house.
6.
Lauren | August 8, 2007 at 9:11 pm
Every summer we get a couple of bats in our attic, wait or are those bats in my belfrey. Hmmm. =) They used to get into the house but know with Opus and Jake (our cats) and Bruce and Abby (our dogs) they pretty much just hang around outside eating the mosquitos that the chickens don’t eat. I think they are cute. =)
7.
Emily | August 8, 2007 at 10:35 pm
Oh Good God, not again. Actually they occasionally do fly around when you turn on the light in your attic to find something, and you don’t know it’s there, until it starts swooping at you, trying to nest in your hair, and bite you, and suck your blood and turn you into a vampire and and and……
8.
Elinor | August 8, 2007 at 10:51 pm
Mafia, I can always count on you for a good belly laugh. Thanks! I love #2 and #6!!! Good luck with the situation. If I had a bat in my window, you would certainly be the person I’d want taking care of the situation!!!!
9.
Francesca | August 8, 2007 at 10:58 pm
I think my cats would love to play with your bat.
I had no idea bats were furry. Thanks for the pictures and the video.
10.
ErickaJo | August 8, 2007 at 10:59 pm
When I lived in Japan I babysat a friend’s pet fruit bat. They’re sweet things, but once I was cleaning her cage and she got out. Gave me the willies. I finished cleaning, cutting up its salad for the next few days (with a towel over my head, I’d heard the stories) and then I went back to my place to get the ex and by the time we got back she had found her way back into her cage. We weren’t entirely certain she could do that. My friend was pleased because she wanted to be able to let the bat wander around the apartment. Never really stayed around to see how that turned out.
11.
Ashley | August 8, 2007 at 11:27 pm
Awww! Look at its little hands! And imagine how nicely moth-free it’s keeping your immediate area. (Outside) bats are the knitter’s ally!
12.
Teresa C | August 9, 2007 at 12:27 am
Sorry, now I have a bit of the heebie jeebies. this on top of the really unfortunate discovery of moth damage in a wool sweater that was very near much of my stash. I almost threw up. I still feel like throwing up. I may have cried. Okay, I did. and of course it is at night so I cannot go out and get things to take measures and I won’t sleep for the grief of it all. Boo hoo. And heebie jeebies.
13.
Emilee | August 9, 2007 at 2:02 am
Awww, I don’t have the heebie-jeebies. Bats are awesome!
14.
Sharon | August 9, 2007 at 8:13 am
Awesome! I love bats. We welcome them in our part of the country (southeastern U.S.) as we have so many mosquitos.
Still can’t convince them to live in the bat house we put up for them. Sigh…
15.
Kate | August 9, 2007 at 8:42 am
Oh, god! I spit up coffee when I saw that picture! In between your windows??? We had one hanging off the eave of the house the other night and the cat was growlin’ and wiggling her ass…then it looked at her, flew to the window and Pumpkin freaked out! I think the bat was like “I can fly, what can you do/??”
16.
pumpkinmama | August 9, 2007 at 8:46 am
So cute! Although I must say were she in MY house she might be less so.
17.
Pi Grrrl | August 9, 2007 at 9:16 am
Cool!
18.
Beth S. | August 9, 2007 at 12:34 pm
So she’s gone now? Hope Little Man wasn’t too disappointed.
But she definitely belongs outside.
19.
Kathode Ray Tube | August 9, 2007 at 3:33 pm
Bats freak me out. When I was little I saw one in the driveway and told my mother “There’s a fox with wings outside!” . Ugh.
20.
InvisibleInsanity | August 9, 2007 at 5:37 pm
Wow, that is really cool. I would have screamed like a girl and then passed out, but it’s cool.
21.
Rhonda the Stitchingnut | August 10, 2007 at 10:03 am
Oh goody! You know they eat mosquitoes right? Great to have OUTSIDE! You need to make a bat house for in your garden or the side of your house. That way they have a place of their own. http://www.batcon.org/bhra/economyhouse.html
22.
Sneaksleep | August 10, 2007 at 1:29 pm
Awesome! I wish we could have one as a pet, but I think our cats (not to mention my husband) might have a problem with that. Your pics made me recall an evening in India when I was sitting with my family on the upper outdoor terrace of a lakeside restaurant just after sunset, and suddenly the view was filled with huge, swooping bats. Flocks of them. With 2-foot wingspans. It was thrilling!
23.
Dorothy | August 13, 2007 at 10:38 pm
If your bat isn’t going ape or behaving aggressively toward you any time you get within 10 feet of it, chances are good that it isn’t rabid. Better to be safe than sorry, but if you ran the stats on bats with and without rabies, you would find it is far more rare to find a bat with rabies than the media makes it sound.
They are cute when they aren’t flying around. I’m not big on them swooping toward me though. Not even with a sure knowledge that they won’t hit me mid flight since they know very well they would come off the worst in that fight.
24.
Sneaksleep | August 14, 2007 at 12:04 pm
Stellaluna wants you to knit the Autumn Rose pullover. I know. She told me. And you know you want to.
25.
moraie | August 27, 2007 at 7:31 pm
The one photo of the bat with the post-it has me rolling around all over the floor.
I like bats, but not in my house. Bats and houses don’t mix. Not good for you, not good for the bats. So you did the right thing and now you can try and see if you can find a better spot for them.
You might wonder what attracted them your attic!