Last night, I went down to my in-laws’ house to chat with my mother-in-law and upon entering their family room, saw something darting over her head. At first I thought it was a bird. JJ, formerly our cat, now theirs, is a big birder, mouser, lean-mean hunting machine. He has brought in birds before so it would not be unusual. But then I heard the flapping. It was not a feathery rush. It was a distinctly crisp “flap-flap” sound. As the flapping object swung my direction, I had a mental freeze-frame shot of it and could see the pointy bits in its black wings. “Is that a bat?” I shouted. Then I fled down the stairs with my hands over my ears yelling, “Open a window! Open a window! AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!” leaving my mother-in-law to deal with the bat. Because that’s what heroes do. Or not. She was able to calmly usher it out the front door. She went downstairs and opened the front door. It followed her downstairs and flew right out the open door. Just like that. I then crept out the kitchen mumbling some stuff about rabies and tiny bites you wouldn’t even see, and we laughed about it. Or we laughed at my ridiculous reaction. Or both.

Apparently, I am much less fearful when the bat in question is on a mat, or a table runner. I mean, it’s not like a table runner can give you rabies. If you’d like to make a festive batty table runner for your Halloween soiree or just to get into the spirit of the spooky season, you can find the pattern here.