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Where We Left Off:
A raccoon met an early demise in our previous case file. Oliver and Gus would love for this road to have far less traffic than it does.
***Everyone is fine!***
Vesper:
It’s July 2025 and I’ve been living with Oliver Winchester around 11 years and Burton Guster Nabu around 10 years. I had no idea they were fans of Ozzy Osbourne, who recently died after reaching an age older than anyone could have expected. Ozzy’s early destructive and abusive antics made him infamous. Fortunately, he course-corrected his behavior. His most infamous exploit is the “eating of a live bat” during a concert. I will not search for validation of this to provide a link, because honestly, I do not want to see images of it again in my life.
However, bat conservation is something we take seriously over here at the Winchester-Nabu estate. The Grumpy Old installed the two bat houses now filled with residents. We have a healthy colony after the devastation brought on by the white nose fungus plague that wiped out millions of bats in the country.
This case was so unexpected. It happened last week and I’m not waiting to write it. Sometimes, the case files come to me in a way that I need to decide the order of writing and publishing them.
Capture & Release:
It was 4AM on Wednesday. I heard two things all of a sudden. The one sound was the distinctive cry made by Gus signaling me that he’s got something to show me. It could be one of his favorite toys, a mouse, or a cricket. I can’t think of a time when this specific cry was anything other than one of those choices. The other sound I heard was a squeaking that was noticeably louder than a mouse. All I could guess from the sound in the dark was that Gus or Ollie pulled on a specific mouse toy which hangs from a string. There’s one upstairs and one downstairs. Lately, Ollie has been playing the one downstairs. It’s a loud squeak.
Then Gus and his prey began to move around the bedroom.
A third noise—unmistakable. A hiss. It was Oliver at the ajar door. Ollie becomes a goalie almost all the time. He blocks escape routes and nudges critters back into play.
I figured this must be one big mouse. It was so much louder than any mouse. I twisted around and searched for the lamp cord and switch. In my left side periphary, I saw something dark brown or black being chased by Gus. It deftly made its way under my dresser.
This was not a mouse.
I managed to untangle myself from my soft white blanket and stood next to the bed. What the heck did I just see? Not a chipmunk. Not a squirrel. My brain knew what it was, but I didn’t want to believe it. The Cook has been complaining that something was around the fireplace, maybe in the woodpile, making noise. She figured it was a mouse. Now I’m thinking she may have heard something inside the chimney.
The bat swooped masterfully through the space between the decorative wooden trim of the dresser and the floor. It came up and swooshed around me. I think Oliver was still in the dark on the landing. Gus was a blur around the room like a cartoon character.
There was a miracle.
This Big Brown Bat dove right into a cardboard box that I’ve been saving. I could not have asked for anything better! I never had to put on gloves (I still should have done so) and frantically try capturing a distressed creature. It was perfect. I closed the box flaps, held it closed while I found some pants and shoes to put on, and was decent enough to downstairs and outside. Oliver moved down the stairs allowing me to reach the landing. Gus was excited. I’m sure what he really wanted was this to become a super fun game. I didn’t feel totally steady on my feet while slowly descending and heading to the living where The Grumpy Old Man was sleeping in a chair.
“Hello?” I whispered a couple times until the elder human opened his eyes and looked at me. I don’t remember what I said after that.
Gus and Oliver were not happy being left at the house as I walked out the door with the box. I took about 20 steps up the stone path by the time I heard The Grumpy Old Man exit from the back door. It was only 4:15AM. I felt like I’d had a full day of activity and it had only been 15 minutes! Oof!
There was a light shining from the exterior of the building we approached. The bat houses were located on a different side. I’m not sure if that large light hinders the bats or bothers them. Maybe it attracts more bugs for them to eat. That would be nice. I’m not a fan of that light being on all night long. It’s not needed. The motion-activated lights are better.
I was unable to get any good photos of this bat. You’ll see in the video that I opened the box flaps and couldn’t find the bat right away because of the shadows. It took only a few seconds before the bat safely flew off into the darkness. This creature wanted nothing to do with us from the beginning. Nonetheless, it was good in a way that Gus and Ollie brought it to me. Had they not done that, the bat would never have been able to dive into that box on the second floor. All of it worked out exceptionally well considering the whole situation.
Case Findings:
Gus and Oliver captured an unexpected intruder inside the house. This creature most definitely did not belong in the house. A Big Brown Bat (Eptesicus fuscus) was captured by the cats and released into The Biographer’s bedroom. From there, the bat found a box perfect for transport. It was taken outside near the bat houses and safely returned to the wild.
Case Status: Closed
Resources:
Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ