The Bat Cave

We all know, thanks to this post, that I'm terrified of skunks.

Well, folks, I've added another creature to the list of things that make me so crazy scared I pretty much lose my mind.

On Monday night, I lugged our laundry basket full of towels down to the basement of the building, where our washers and dryers are located. It's really no big deal, even with the occasional clangs and clatters of whatever machinery is down there and the creepiness factor of being in a dark basement by yourself. Anyway, as I was saying, I walked down the stairs and toward my favorite washing machine (yes, I have a favorite), when I noticed something hanging out on the side of the wall right across from the washer.

I crept a bit closer to see what it was, and in a feat miraculous to me, I realized what it was, ran all the way up to our third-floor apartment, and slammed the door behind me in seconds. Friends, I've never seen a bat in person (other than the shadows in the darkness at Brookfield Zoo's Australia House), but I instinctively knew what it was. Of course, right after I told Dave what had happened, I did an image search for "resting bats" to make sure my instinct was correct.

Needless to say, the laundry did not get done that night, and I wondered if I would have to go to the laundromat, or at least the building next door, to do laundry from that point on. There was no way I'd go back to that basement with a bat out and about! I made the mistake of Googling "how to get rid of bats" and found out that when one bat is spotted, there are likely more bats around. Great!

After work yesterday, I bravely went to the basement (with my winter coat on and hood ready to throw on) to see if the bat was still there. It wasn't. Oddly, this made me even more certain what I'd seen the night before was a bat, so I marched over to the rental office to report it.

In an anticlimactic moment, the woman told me the bat had been spotted by workers earlier in the day and removed. I was happy to know I wasn't the crazy lady whose eyes were playing tricks on her. (That reminds me of the time my college roommates and I were certain that a shredded bunny or squirrel had been left on our front porch. Then someone pointed out it was just insulation. Oops!)

Anyway, I ended yesterday with a load of laundry done and the knowledge that I am now not only afraid of ladybugs and skunks but bats, too.