So Paul and I were sitting on the couch, minding our own business and watching Mythbusters (Human slingshot! Yay!) when another little brown bat goes flapping past my head. Gosh, they’re pretty in flight, but a little disturbing when they’re in your kitchen.

Another round of broom-grabbing and door-closing began. This time we were actually armed with our wits and fully awake, which helped the bat more than us, because this time we could think of other ways to get him out other than hitting him with stuff. We herded him around, opening windows and trying to get him to exit gracefully by turning out all the lights except one candle on the open window’s sill. That didn’t seem to work, and Paul finally trapped him in his studio and shooed him out an open window with the broom.

Brodie the cat also showed the first spark of intelligence I’ve ever witnessed in him. When we lost track of the fleidermaus for a while, Brodie found him lodged in a windowshade, and just sat there, patiently looking up at it until we figured out what he was trying to tell us.

We finally figured out that the bats are somehow getting up the back stairs through my studio, so I’ll be keeping that door shut full-time from now on.