There was a bat in our house Sunday morning.
I wish I had taken a picture, but it all happened too fast. My husband returned from a U.S. business trip on Saturday night. We were all asleep when he got home, so in the morning he and I sat in the living room with our coffee to recap the past couple of weeks. All the sudden he kind of freaked out, saying something about there being a bird in the house. I didn’t see it, nor did I hear any noise. But after a few minutes I did see — not a bird, but a bat.
It flew around the house, finally situating itself in the larger sunroom while we opened up doors to encourage it to fly out. Mind you, we had jackets over our heads the entire time – that whole bats-in-the-hair myth from our youth obviously stayed with us (rabies would be a much more logical worry). Confused, the bat circled several times before finally finding its way out the open door.
My husband’s freak-out was funny, but somewhat understandable to me. He feels about bats the same way I feel about spiders (and for that vacation story, stay tuned…). They literally stun him into a stupor – can’t speak, move, or do anything logical until it is gone.
Our biggest question, of course, was HOW did it get in our house?! I supposed it could have come in when he arrived home the night before. Undetected, somehow? Or maybe it was when my daughter came home from her friend’s house earlier in the evening. But again, undetected? Doesn’t seem likely. Now we wonder if they have entered through house vents or the chimney, or if we have a problem in the attic.
I’ve never seen a bat in China, nor have I heard of them hanging around. And certainly in these cold temperatures, I wouldn’t expect them to surface. Bats eat mosquitos, which I would welcome in the summer months, but in the January cold of Beijing?
Now that we’ve uncovered our heads and checked the house for all possible entry points, I’ve learned that bats are a symbol of happiness, longevity and good luck in China. And here I thought they were just kind of creepy to have in my house. Who’da thought?
