After a little explanation I thought this was right up Paladin's alley. It turns out that this was an injured bat on the porch floor and a blue jay was attacking it. The guy's wife was brave enough to walk out and take pics of it. It looked like your typical small dark colored flying mammal.
The guy said his wife was "freaking out" over it. I asked if he had a pair of heavy boots that she could wear to stomp on it but he didn't think that she would do that.
He didn't have a shovel that she could pick it up with to move it away from the door and he didn't know how badly injured it was. If it was still mobile on it's feet then moving it with a shovel might not be such a great idea.
I asked him if he had a heavy cardboard box that she could scoop it up into to move it away. He said "Well, we have a cat litter pail that she could use."
I finally realized that his wife is totally incapable of dealing with something like this. He was not going back home to take care of it and I'm not sure he could handle it either. He was concerned about rabies, which is nothing to laugh at. Mainly he was worried that his dogs might be injured or get rabies even though they've been vaccinated. I laughed because my dogs probably would have eaten the little critter so quickly that I would never have seen it.
I suggested he call animal control and they would probably have someone come out to get it. Sometimes you just have to call a professional.
Here is a pic of the critter on the ground. She had twins!!
Here is a pic of the critter in the net.
Animal control took away the little critters and said she would drop them off at Outdoor Learning Center. I guess they have a veterinarian available there on the city payroll who can check out the bats and see if they can be saved or will have to be euthanized.
3 comments:
That was the right thing to do :)
Bats with babies attached are not very aerodynamic. Its hard for them to get off the ground unless they drop from a good height, and they spend alot of their time just crawling around under eaves and in trees due to the extra weight.
Not sure how she wound up on the porch, but the extra weight combined with the bird harassment would have made her a gonner. Pets exposed to physical contact with bats face an EXTREMELY long quarantine per state law - even if vaccinated against rabies before the exposure.
I've dealt with the OLC lots. They are a part of the school district there. Good folks, and pretty reasonable to talk to as far as "animal nuts" go :)
...yea,it was 'the right thing to do'
...although i probably would've stomped it,then scooped it,then chucked it to the tree line/or watched the jay have it's way with it equally as well...
I don't really have the option of calling animal control.
A local woman told me she found a snake in her house about 10 years ago while her husband was out of town. She called the sheriff. He came right over and was going to shoot it with his duty handgun IN HER HOUSE. She convinced him that wasn't a good idea so he used a hoe or shovel to get it outside and kill it there.
I'd rather take care of things like this for myself when I can.
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