Who says Friday nights are boring at home alone with the kids?

Whoever thinks that, come to my house!

AC has something going on that is causing vomiting. She has reflux and is on meds, but she was vomiting worse than she ever has before and hasn't missed a dose of her meds. I pray it isn't the stomach virus! She is just too little. :(

As if this wasn't enough for one night, I am sitting at the computer to do a little research on the meds she is taking and I hear a scratching sound in the hallway.

Oh no! We must have a mouse... GROSS!

Bubba, our dog, must have heard it the same time I did because he ran over to the return air box for the central heat and air. He sniffed around and then laid down right in front of it.

Great. Something else to deal with tonight.

I got the flashlight and headed over to the vent. I lowered the vent and my first thought was "I didn't change the filter on the 1st as I normally do." I pulled the corner down to peek inside the box with the flashlight. I was thinking... "If there is a mouse in there, I am going to leave him in there and put a trap in there too and take care of it that way hopefully."

Nothing.

Pull the corner down a little farther.

I can't see any mouse in there so it must have found a way out when it heard me opening the door. If there are any "signs" I will put a trap in there anyway. So, I lower the filter down all the way to the floor on top of the metal vent thingy. I take the flashlight and get all up in the little "box" area to look for whatever could be in there. Nothing at all. This is good news. It hasn't been there long.

I sat back up from leaning over the vent thingy and the filter and reach down to pick up the filter when something on the filter (the interior side that would have been facing into "box" area and the side, when laid down on top of the metal vent thingy, was face up while I was leaning all over it) catches my eye.

I was too scared to scream! On the filter, that I was all but laying on, was a BAT!!!! A BIG, BLACK, SCARY BAT!

I shut that filter and metal vent thingy back up and locked it in place so fast! Of course, I immediately can't breathe right, my heart is going crazy, and all of a sudden I can't see straight.... full blown panic attack!

After a minute, I calmed down enough to call my dad. Daddy is an hour away. He can't help me. He asked me what I did with it.

What I did with it??? I shut it back up in there. What do you think I would do with it? Keep it as a pet?

Then he said the dreaded words... "Stacie, you have to get it out of there before it finds a way out into your house."

My first thought.... my girls!

He then told me to open up the back door and the screen. Turn on all the lights in the house since bats like the dark. Open the vent back up and take the filter outside and it will fly away.

Then I think to myself... Me???? Oh yeah, it could get out and get to my girls. Just put on your big girl panties (that I all but had to change by this point!) and handle business.

I told dad I would just call him back when I got the nerve to do it. He said "don't wait or it may move off the filter."

That got me moving because I sure didn't want to have to touch it!

I put on some latex gloves (these are a staple in my house as something kinda like my security blanket... to be used for any dirty job, cooking and/or handling raw meat or just the unimaginable like I was about to do even tho my hands are scrubbed well after the job is done) and a colander with a handle. I turned on every light we have plus the flashlight for extra measure. I shut all the doors in the house. I didn't want it going into the bedrooms or the bathroom. Keep it headed in the right direction if it gets loose.

As I continued to tell myself over and over that I HAD to do this for my girls. I lowered the gate. I slowly lowered the filter expecting this bat to come flying out at my head like you see in the movies but it didn't. Praise the Lord it was still on the filter! But it was crawling towards me!! I dropped the colander on top of it trapping it on top of the filter.

Now, you know that bats use sound to "see" and they make a clicking noise. But, did you know that when you have one trapped between a filter and a colander and you are running like a mad woman out the back door that you can actually feel those clicks in your bones? I swear! Fear may have been a factor too tho :)

Needless to say, when I got to the backdoor, I just threw it all and shut the door. I have never been so proud when I called my dad back saying "I did it!"

James, on the other hand, wouldn't stop laughing long enough to hear the story when I called him. I will have to make him pay when he gets home!