Country Mouse City Mouse Adventures: Introducing the newest, and shortest lived, member of our family...

This nifty little fellow is named Bertrand the Bat. He flew over SuperNan's head tonight while she was sitting at the computer, innocently checking her message boards. She didn't scream initially, except for when she had to get my attention. Sometimes I take after my dad a little bit, and I guess I tend to be hard of hearing. Or just completely absorbed in the neat things surrounding me. Which are rarely made up of bats.

Fortunately enough for us, he flew into the kitchen and for a brief period appeared to be napping atop the kitchen door. He looked so cute and cuddled up there that I thought - momentarily-about wrapping him and I up into my lumberjack jacket and dozing together. But then I realized that it was a FRICKIN' BAT and he was in our FRICKIN' HOUSE so I came to my senses and got the broom.

It was at this point that all Hell broke lose because my mother dispatched herself to go get my father, the Ultimate BatBuster. I, unfortunately, was left alone with the bat for all of five minutes and I suppose my time in the Big City must have worn off on me because when he started flying DIRECTLY AT MY FACE I felt the need to commence shrieking with all my might. SuperDad soon came to the rescue, fully equipped with a handy-dandy fishing net. I was surprised because I was expecting him to come up to the bat with his bare hands and grasp him by his thin little neck to toss him out the door.

But this was not to be the case. My father caught the bat with the net, and we all oohed and ahhed at the beauty of him because he actually was like a little mouse with wings. My mother is quite fond of mice, having performed many animal-friendly breeding projects on genetics with them in her college days. My father does not quite have the same affection for mice going on, but he tends to love all wildlife, especially turtles, and apparently bats. And so we all wished Bertrand the best and set him free in the garden like the good samaritans that we are.