This bat tale happened about a month after my bat encounter. We arrived at the cottage and after putting things away, Bill decided to start the fireplace stove insert as it was a little cool in there. I'm sitting at the table a short distance away. He grabs the ash bucket and shovel and gets down on his knees in front of the stove. He opens the door and proceeds to begin removing the ashes from the previous fire. All of a sudden he slams the door shut and back peddles across the rug on his hands and knees. He looks over at me with wide eyes
and I say "Bat"? He vigorously shakes his head and says how the heck are we going to get that thing out of there? (It had been hanging inside on one of the stove bricks. He thought it was ashes and had knocked it down.)
I told him I'd take care of it. I got my (now favorite) very heavy duty fireplace gloves, opened the door, and picked up the little bat that was laying face down in the ashes on the bottom of the stove. I never knew bats screamed but it sure did all the way out the door! I set it on our low stone wall and it just laid there. I seemed to remember that bats have a hard time taking off from the ground so I picked it back up and set it on a tree branch with leaf coverage to shield it from the daylight. I checked later and it was gone. One bat saved and no more encounters since then.
I'm also known as Suzie Snake Slayer, havng caught a 2 1/2 foot long Milk Snake. I really didn't kill it, just relocated it! But that's another story.......