Bats, Cats, and Gym Rats

The other night The Wife was making a horrible racket - I was more than a little put off by being woken, but snapped awake when she said, "Something is in the house!"

I jump out of bed in a daze and follow her.  She grabs a shoe. I think, that doesn't make sense, but ok, we don't have any baseball bats, so she could throw a shoe...  My heart was apoundin' as I trail her, armed with that shoe, from room to room and downstairs.  Finding nothing, we head back to bed.  Me somewhat perplexed and her saying, "I am not hallucinating!"

'Course, I did think she was hallucinating or at least that her imagination was a bit overactive.  I went back to sleep and thought not of the incident again.

Until the next night, when, shortly after I'd gotten to sleep, I am once again not-so-gently roused, and this time she was saying in a voice somewhere between a whisper and a scream, "I saw it, there is a bat, get up, GET UP, you have to get the BAT!"

I jump out of bed and follow her.  Again.  Now I recall the shoe from the night before and it suddenly makes more sense - not an intruder, but a much smaller thing.  I follow her, but this time I find myself in the lead.

I look in the bathroom.

Nothing.

I ruffle the curtains.

Nothing.

I go in the spare bedroom.

Ack!  There is a bat hanging out on the wall!  I shut myself in the room with the thing and instruct TW to go immediately and get a Tupperware.  She does, gives it to me, and leaves me alone with the little creature.

It is a stand-off.  I swear that thing was eyeing me.

Nonetheless, I gathered my courage (I may have shrieked once or twice before gathering it) and miraculously got the Tupperware over it.

We debated  just letting the thing go, but remembered the warnings from DPH before and kept the poor thing to turn over to animal control for rabies testing.   Hopefully the results will come back with less suspense than last time.  The animal control guy did say that there hasn't been a case of bat rabies in two years, so that is somewhat reassuring.  I will update on this if testing comes back positive, but otherwise just assume we are in the clear again.

On to other things.  Namely CATS.  So, if you've been reading past posts, you know that BatCat and Stubby have been expelled from the house and are now porch kitties.  I can't recall if I mentioned that I made them a cat house.  I am extremely proud of said cat house:

Do you see how I built it directly into the porch.  It was big enough for both cats and was fully insulated so that it would be a proper shelter come winter.

Well, turns out - and I guess I knew it all along - these two cats can barely tolerate each other.  And BatCat, formerly known as Bitchy Queen, will have none of this sharing business that was suggested by having only one house.  She would sit inside and should Stubby, also known as Scaredy Cat, get anywhere near the door, a yowling fest would occur.

So I had to remake the cat house.  I should have done it this way in the beginning - with two door.  Would have been so much better for the remake, but I just wanted them to be the warmest, and two cats huddled would be much warmer than one cat huddled.  So I got to work.  I had some leftover board from the first project, so all I had to do was get more trim and something for the cat doors (missing piece from the last one).  The boards weren't long enough for the whole facade, so I had to saw and refashion it to make it long enough and accommodate doors.  Then once the facade was done I had to redo the insulation on the inside so that instead of one long house, it was two smaller houses.  I'd planned on spending two or so hours on the project.  I spent 8.5 hours on it.

But Voila!


Not bad, if I do say so myself.  You can see that BatCat is turning up her nose at it, but by morning she had gotten her act together and had made herself at home in the right kitty condo.

I don't know where Stubby is keeping warm, but at least now I can be assured that he has a proper shelter should he choose to use it.

And on a final note: I am back at the gym. Hallelujah! It has been two full months now and I've gone every morning, M-F, and only missed one day from being sick.  Mozart is finally sleeping in the morning long enough that I can sneak out before he stirs and then I get back just about the time he wakes up.  This was foiled only once, and I packed him up in the stroller and walked to the gym where he stayed while I did my weights and then we walked back.  That, of course, won't happen in the snow, but that was an especially accomplished morning.  And the other gym rats thoroughly enjoyed him.  They now ask about him regularly.

And best of all.  I feel great!