And now for something completely different.....

A little after midnight last night the cats woke me
with their traipsing about the bedroom: leaping,
crinkling paper. P. asked me what it was all about,
and I said, "Oh, they're just playing."

Then I got up to use the bathroom, and a dark shape
swooped down from the ceiling, swooped away,
swooped towards me again. Yikes! Bat!
The bathroom (batroom) window doesn't have
a screen: point of entry. I'm not bat-phobic,
but it was a little unnerving to be sitting
on la toilette with a bat careening about my head.

I left fierce Sally with the bat, closed the batroom door,
and after about five minutes, Sally called me -- not
a wail to open the door and let her out, but more
a "come and see" kind of meow.

Sure enough, she had captured and disabled
the critter, and was standing guard over it
waiting for my approval. She then proceeded
to flip it all over the batroom, rolling and luxuriating
in her furred toy. Marble Cake, less brazen, came in
to sniff at it, gave it a tentative pat with her paw,
then left it to Miss Sally.

This morning, I scooped the feather-weight chiroptera
out the window, but took a good look at its
tiny ears, its wings carefully folded against the body.
I considered photographing it for this post,
but thought batter of it. A bit too Halloweenish,
perhaps. And disrespectful to the bat.

(And yes, I looked up all kinds of information
about bats & rabies, including the exhaustive
CDC site, and it appears very unlikely that this
is a concern. And the cats immunizations are current.)