here on wild kingdom...

Can you tell what that is? It was curled up next to our door yesterday. (In the hallway, not in the apartment.)

Look closely.

It's a bat.

We got home from work yesterday, and as I was putting the key in the door I noticed our friend on the floor. I really couldn't tell what it was--it was dark, and the little guy was scrunched up pretty tight.

I asked Husband (who saw it immediately and knew what it was), "Is it alive?" Not wanting me to have some kind of girly-squealy freakout (and who does he think he's dealing with anyway?) he said he didn't know. I said, "Did it used to be alive?" Again, he said he didn't know. Mind you, I still can't tell what it is at this point--he knows very well that it's a bat.

I opened the door, and the bat revealed itself by lifting its head and watching the door open. "It's a bat! It's a bat!" I said. Husband at this point revealed that he'd known all along. We decided that the best course of action was for us to go out and do our errands as planned; certainly the bat would be gone by the time we got back. If, however, it was still there, Husband said he'd "deal with it." Sounded ominous.

Boring haircut, boring shopping, life-threatening taxi ride.

On the way back to the apartment in the elevator, we said to each other: "Bat...or no bat?" (in the menacing voice of that guy from the TV show "Deal or no deal" that Uncle likes so much).

The answer was "Bat."

It was still there.

Husband went out into the hallway with a broom, hoping to shoo it away. After a moment or so, he called me. "Hey honey! Come take a look!" Not at all sure I really wanted to know what he was doing, I went out to join him.

He had the bat clinging to the straws of the broom, swiveling its little head around with its ears perked up, scared out of its wits, I"m sure. I have to admit, it was sort of cute. But I didn't let that affect my knowledge that this was a BAT. A bat that could FLY AROUND IN OUR APARTMENT. I'm not sure why I thought that would be so awful, but I did.

Husband brought the bat down seven floors in the elevator, still clinging to the broom. On the way down one of the maintenance guys got on to the elevator, took one look at the bat, and burst out laughing. Of course, as this is the default response of Thai people to anything and everything farang do or say, it may not mean much.

Husband gently released the bat into a bush by shaking the broom until it let go.

Think it will be back tonight?