There's a bat in me kitchen, what am I gonna do?
So, first thing this morning, I get awoken by a shriek downstairs.
"Oh my God, it's a mouse!"
I pondered this for a minute, and thought to myself it must just be one of the cat's toys. But the shrieking continued and I figured I'd best go down and see what the fuss was about. Sure enough, there was indeed a small furry thing on the floor.
A small furry thing that suddenly sprouted wings, that is.
Somehow overnight, a bat (a pipistrelle by the look of things) flew in through the kitchen window, wherupon our two black cats evidently took turns to clatter it and attempt to dust the floor with it. The little bat fellow was understandably a bit put out by this and curled himself up and made some clicky shrieking noises of his own.
A quick bit of emergency Googling led us to the to the Bat Conservation Trust and some advice as how to handle a grounded bat. An impromptu bat chill-out room was constructed from a shoebox and some kitchen towel, and with the addition of a few airholes, we left him to have a calm.
A little later, we dropped him off at the local vet so they could keep an eye on him and sure enough, later that day we gather he was looking a lot more lively with plans to try and release him that evening; if he still wasn't too happy about it, the bat hospital would pick him up.
(Presumably in an er, batmobile?)