Fight or flight: a note from the old house
July 21, 2009
Bet stayed in town last night to finish some things up in the other house. She sent this along this morning:
You may notice a lingering smell of Raid in the house. I had an altercation with a bat last evening (I won).
I was lying in bed reading about 9:30, when this bat flew into the bedroom. Despite my extreme panic, I recalled Orm Murphy telling me he always kept a can of Raid and a tennis racket beside his lazy boy. I ran downstairs, grabbed the Raid (for ants, but it was the first thing I saw), and the adult-size tennis racket hanging at the bottom of the stairs. Hands shaking, I unzipped the cover only to find a mangled racket inside. The other racket was a kid-size (intact).
By this time it was circling the living room, so I sprayed and swatted (not easy to do with a short racket, and I can’t hit anything at the best of times) until it finally slowed down and landed on the window casing. I wacked it until it fell to the floor, gave it a couple of more whumps, ran to get the mangled racket so I could pin it, then turfed it out the door. No blood was shed, and I didn’t break anything.
Needless to say, I didn’t sleep much. I left all the lights on and slept bolt upright with a broom handy. I will sleep at the farm tonight.
the Walnut Diary 