Did you say 'bats'? Yes, yes I did. Or: "Holy Bat Infestation, Batman!" Or, "For Rent: 1 apartment, bats included"

Friday night, I was doing some dishes around 9:30 and out of the corner of my eye, I saw something fly by a couple of times, but didn't catch what it was. Figuring it was a moth, I finished the dishes and headed to the living room where I discovered, no, it was not a moth. It was a bat. A BAT. Flying around my living room. And I let out one yelp, ducked to the floor, and tried to figure out what one does when one has a bat in one's living room.

I decided I would turn off the lights and open the front door and hope the bat flew out. (Logically it didn't really play out in my mind, but apparently it was the right thing to do, according to a website about wild bats). It didn't seem like it was really working and for some reason I peeked out in the hallway. Lo and behold, there was a bat! So I slammed the door shut, turned around, and realized it was not the same bat because there was still one flying around my living room.

At this point, I ran in my room and shut the door and called Animal control. While waiting for them, another bat flew out of my closet. This one kindly landed on the floor and held very still, allowing me to put a box over him. And there I waited for the animal guys to come. Which also meant braving a trip out of my apartment to let them in, but I survived. 

My friendly Animal Control officer caught both bats, informed me that he'd contact the Public Health department and test the two bats for rabies and let me know if I would need a rabies vaccination. And he warned me not to stay in my apartment until the situation was resolved.

Since Friday, I have found 3 more bats in my apartment on my random stops in to pick up a change of clothes, seen one in the hallway, one in the window of another apartment, learned that my neighbors had three in their apartment, and I have talked to the emergency management line, the night manager, Animal Services twice, the security company for my complex twice, still don't know when I'll be able to move back in (or if I will want to! I'm terrified that I'll be finding bats long afterwards. It's a little traumatic, okay?), whether I need a rabies shot, where I'm going to stay if I can't get back in soon, etc. And, of course, none of the necessary businesses are open on the weekend, so I just have to wait til tomorrow. In the meantime, who knows how many bats are partying in my house. 

Give me frogs any day. 

Somehow, it was less creepy taking a picture of this bat in the building hallway than trying to photograph one in my apartment. Still gives me the shudders though.