Gratuitous Fledermaus Posting

I had thought that the high point of my encounter with Nature today was the half hour or so I spent watching a vixen and her four pups frolicking at the edge of the woods behind Orgle Manor this afternoon.

But noooooooooh......

You see, earlier this evening, as I was watching Grosse Point Blank (Minnie Driver.....mmmmmmmm.......) I heard a bang and a series of squeeks that suggested a mouse had somehow got itself trapped in the HVAC. "Eh," I said to myself, "Self, it'll sort itself out."

So I watched the rest of the moovie. Howsomever, when I later came out of Robbo's Former Fortress of Solitude after checking the Tasty Bits (TM) Mail Sack, I noticed the cats staking out the backside of the tee vee. On closer observation, I saw a small bat slinking around on the carpet behind and under it.

Well, not being one to let the grass or invasive small mammal population expand under his hooves, I hastily went upstairs, grabbed the library fireplace tongs and came back down to expel the creature. Suffice to say, mission accomplished. When last seen, it was getting itself together amidst the ivy surrounding the bird feeder out back.

We've had a fair number of creatures invade Orgle Manor, but I believe this is our first bat. Ironic that it should be in the basement, what? Ut-bay, on't-tay ell-tay he-they issus-May: She's quite terrified of bats.