Sunday, December 11, 2011

Of Vampire Bats and Warm Cockles

I ran across this video at the Huffpost this morning and it reminded me of something similar that once happened to me.



When I was a little boy I found a baby bat in the yard.  He was no larger than the one in the video.  Of course, I brought him inside and put him in a shoe box where I made him a nice bed out of an old sock.  My mom got me an eye dropper so I could feed him warm milk.  My dad wanted to destroy him because bats were known carriers of rabies and he was afraid for my safety.  But I wouldn't let him do it.

To be honest, I was afraid as well.  Not of getting rabies, but of being bitten.  For all I knew, he was a vampire bat and I could see he had sharp little teeth.  Besides, bats are just scary creatures in the first place.  But my sense of compassion overcame my fear and I began nursing him. I was able to get him to take the milk from the dropper and over the next week or so he grew stronger.  I was esthetic that I was able to save this little creature and had become really attached and devoted to him.

Then, one day when I picked him up to feed him, he reached up with his little claws and grabbed onto my finger, just like in the movie.  It so startled me that I jerked my hand away, which threw him across the room, against the wall, and killed him dead.

8 comments:

  1. Sad story, but part of learning our way in this world.

    Cool video, even if it brought back a sad memory.

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  2. Well, crap. I hate unhappy endings. How neat that you nursed the little guy, though.

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  3. Sorry for the unhappy ending. When I was little I kept trying to capture squirrels with my own crude little trap. It never worked; they always snuck in and took the bait and left without the wooden box falling and capturing them. It's probably just as well. I don't know what I would have done if I'd actually captured one.

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  4. laughing out loud.
    WTF... Sounds like the tea baggers.

    When someone knows the Constitution and crawls up their finger, waving it at them, they freak and kill that mother dead. chuckle

    Vampires, Jesus, what next? eye of a newt, for President of the united states?

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  5. That is what happens when you try to bite the hand that feeds you but then he was probably just going to give you q little kiss.

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  6. Most stories about a boy swinging a bat are way different.

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  7. Dang! I can't believe you're talking about vampires again. When I saw these tattoos, I was reminded of a post you did (I could SWEAR it was you, anyway) some time ago about a bunch of people with multiple tats and piercings claiming to be vampires.

    When I saw this collection of tats, I had to share it with someone and immediately thought of you:
    11 Best/Worst Vagina Tattoos

    Personally, I think they should be called pubic tattoos, since we can only hope the actual vagina remained untouched.

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  8. Made me think of the children's book "Stella Luna."

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