About The Bats09:08 Dec 06 2012
Times Read: 535
Hello!
This is my first journal entry here--I only joined half an hour ago--and while I was sorting out my profile I noticed that the little "I'm Online" icon was a flying bat!
Now of course I am far from unusual in my love of bats, but I've had the unusual honor/luck to live in a house that the local dwarf bats have access to.
Rather, they have access to the windows and open tiles in the ceiling.
Now I have written about this before on fetlife but it us three in the morning, I can't sleep and I just made a pot of coffee...so why not just re-tell the story instead of cutting and pasting?
Not to mention the fact that my signal has yet again decided to eat itself and for the time being I am officially offline and have no way to access those older writings anyway.
So, from the beginning...
I moved to Panama in 2006. Anyone who has been to Central America knows how the houses here rarely have screened windows, and it is perfectly ordinary to leave the windows open at all times. The windows are almost always barred with ornate steal bars so that--in theory--keeps away the vandals and thieves.
Onto the bats...
Due to the constant openness of the house many insects and animals take it upon themselves to stroll in. So far the list is thus...
1, snake (tiny, red and black)
12,-or so-little black and white birds that look like tiny fat flying penguins.
30? 20? 198? Rats/Mice. One of which I found last december dead and mummified in a make-shift nest...but more about that another time.
A handful of sparrows.
2 female red rumped tanagers (I think that's what it was)
...wow. I'm watching Twin Peaks and just seen David Duchovny all dolled up. If someone had told me about this I would have watched this show years ago...
And I am very much digressing, forgive me.
Some kind of possum...and about a million bugs (including the screw-worms that enjoy borrowing in our dogs' flesh).
Well, in 2007 I noticed the bats. At first I just assumed they were birds but then there were three that insisted on staying in the front of the house. One was small but bigger than the other two, who I know now were babies.
One of the small ones and the mother eventually took off to the rest of the house, but there was one that always stayed--literally--at arm's length.
Don't misunderstand me, I am not claiming to be some miraculous bat whisperer! Though that would be awesome, wouldn't it?
Just think about it...my own personal fat little minions, sending them out into the night to do my bidding. Attacking my enemies with their minute flat teeth and little claws that can't even go through cotton. Then they'd get distracted by a moth or nocturnal ladybug and...
It happened again. Pardon me.
Where was I?
So yes! So this little bat hung around and though we couldn't touch it (later found out it was a female) she was fine with being around my family and myself as long as we didn't try to get TOO close. She was even fine with having the lights on and music or TV.
Now I am sure many will question HOW did I know it was the same bat? Well, truth be told I can't know for certain. it isn't as if I tagged her or took a miniscule hair sample for DNA analysis.
But! She did have a little pale brown spot on her back. And of course bats spook easily and it was always this same spotted bat that came back every morning to sleep on the broken down ceiling fan.
Alright, other than the fact it was sweet and we all cared about her there isn't much to say for the first year or so.
We named her Billie. We didn't know her gender so it was at first "Billy/Billie".
Then after about two years she started having her own babies.
She would have 1-2 little balls of fluff every year for 3 years (I believe). It's hard to know for sure how many she had each year because as you know all mothers are protective of their babies, but wild animals are even more protective.
So she would let us get to about 3-5' of her then fly off. Normally we could get to her at only 1-2' away.
And that is how it was for 3 years.
The only other interesting thing that happened with the bats in that time was that roughly twice a year one would get a little TOO zoned in on a flying bug and knock itself out into the concrete walls.
That was until a few months ago.
Billie gave birth again, this time only one baby. And her fur started to become paler than before. She also looked like she was gaining more weight than usual and she was slower and slept longer and longer.
Then one night she never took off to go hunt for bugs. So I got onto a chair to examine her.
Now I would like to point out that I have a irrational fear of short heights. I am fine in tall buildings, or planes. Even those elevators with the glass doors.
But you put me on a foot-stool 12" into the "air" and I begin to get dizzy and afraid I am going to break my neck.
Despite this I sucked it up and took a look at Billie. No matter what i did she would not respond. So I took of my sweat-shirt and carefully...CAREFULLY took her off the ceiling.
No surprise I was crying. Not only was my little Billie dead but so was her baby.
That was until the baby bat made a god awful squeal that damn near sent me off the chair a broken neck.
The little bastard was alive! And he was fat. And he was PISSED.
And he was determined to keep nursing on Billie.
At this point I went and got my mother to give me a hand.
Long story SLIGHTLY less longer...
We took care of him for eight hours before one of his relatives (?) took him back. We had to lay him on his back on the chair and take several steps away before the adult bat would come down and get close enough for him to grab onto it.
But he did and we've been doing our best to watch his progress.
While taking care of him we were lucky to have internet and a can of powdered baby formula for human babies. I made a watered down formula and thanks to some advice I found online about feeding baby bats with a sterile sponge, we fed him with a wash rag...after letting it soak in boiling water for a bit.
Then squeezed the water out and let some formula soak into the little corner. Then gave it to him and he promptly began nursing on the terry cloth.
The truth is I was scared the whole time that we would somehow kill him. Animals are so delicate and baby animals even more so. And though i would never wish to do it again, we must have done something right.
He ate twice and hour and after each feeding he evacuated his waste. All like clockwork.
And that is pretty much it!
We still see the bats, but they all stay in the hallway and back room. Since Billie died the rest have been...suspicious of humans. And the fact we had one of their children couldn't have helped the human-bat relations any, now could it?
I will post some photos of the bats ASAP.
For anyone who actually read this: Thank You!
Sincerely,
D.
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