Bats are glorious!
Today is International Bat Appreciation Day, and I happen to be VERY fond of bats. Y'all know what that means. Etsy shop is LavAveHandmade.
When I was in college I had a professor who declared anything he liked to be "glorious." One day we were out in the woods measuring...jeez, I don't remember what, but up on one of the trees there was a wooden house that was definitely not a birdhouse. I had an idea about what it was, but I asked anyway and Dr. S replied "Oh, that's a bat box. We're researching bats." "Ewwww, I don't like bats," another student grimaced. "Bats are glorious!" Dr. S exclaimed, and I agreed with a big smile.
Yeah, I've always liked bats. Having grown up in the country with plenty of mosquitoes and fruit trees meant that the bats were and still are thick during the warm months. They were your usual little brown bats (the sparrow of the bat family), with a few big brown bats mixed in, and undoubtedly other species as well (Missouri has fourteen bat species). They were so thick around Grandpa's peach orchard that Daddy blew one up with a firework one time. As I mentioned back last Indy Day my dad loved fireworks, and one year (before I was born) a little brown bat zeroed in on one of Daddy's bottle rockets thinking it was something to eat. The bat got to the bottle rocket right as the rocket exploded, and poor ol' Mr. Bat was blown to smithereenies. Mama said they all felt bad about killing the bat, but they couldn't help but laugh at the ridiculousness of it.
As for me myself, my favorite memory of bats happened when I was about twenty-five. I'd taken Mama's dogs outside, and it was dark enuff that the bats were out but still light enuff that I could see a bit. Mama has a pool in her backyard, pools mean mosquitoes, and mosquitoes in turn mean that the bats were thick. One particularly plucky little bat swooped low over the pool, dipped his jaw quickly into the water, and flew away without missing a beat. I'd always wondered how bats drink since they have a hard time taking off from the ground, and now I know.
Despite my fondness of bats I try to give them a respectful distance, as I do with all wild creatures. The little goobers have sharp teeth even if they're NOT vampire bats (which we don't have around here). Furthermore, you never know which bat might be sick with rabies. The last reported rabies death in Illinois was from a bat bite, so I am VERY careful if I cross paths with a live bat. That said, I do still like 'em.
Love,
RagingMoon1987
Yeah, I've always liked bats. Having grown up in the country with plenty of mosquitoes and fruit trees meant that the bats were and still are thick during the warm months. They were your usual little brown bats (the sparrow of the bat family), with a few big brown bats mixed in, and undoubtedly other species as well (Missouri has fourteen bat species). They were so thick around Grandpa's peach orchard that Daddy blew one up with a firework one time. As I mentioned back last Indy Day my dad loved fireworks, and one year (before I was born) a little brown bat zeroed in on one of Daddy's bottle rockets thinking it was something to eat. The bat got to the bottle rocket right as the rocket exploded, and poor ol' Mr. Bat was blown to smithereenies. Mama said they all felt bad about killing the bat, but they couldn't help but laugh at the ridiculousness of it.
As for me myself, my favorite memory of bats happened when I was about twenty-five. I'd taken Mama's dogs outside, and it was dark enuff that the bats were out but still light enuff that I could see a bit. Mama has a pool in her backyard, pools mean mosquitoes, and mosquitoes in turn mean that the bats were thick. One particularly plucky little bat swooped low over the pool, dipped his jaw quickly into the water, and flew away without missing a beat. I'd always wondered how bats drink since they have a hard time taking off from the ground, and now I know.
Despite my fondness of bats I try to give them a respectful distance, as I do with all wild creatures. The little goobers have sharp teeth even if they're NOT vampire bats (which we don't have around here). Furthermore, you never know which bat might be sick with rabies. The last reported rabies death in Illinois was from a bat bite, so I am VERY careful if I cross paths with a live bat. That said, I do still like 'em.
Love,
RagingMoon1987
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