On one of my sandwich calls yesterday morning I was asked by the receptionist if I knew anything about bats! It seems that my predilection for all things furry had gone before me but that she hadn't realised cats, not bats are my forte!
However, I digress. "Bats"? I said curiously upon which she produced from below her desk a small black creature about the size of a 10p piece and plonked it unceremoniously into my hand.
"It's dead!" she said...... presumably trying to explain what already seemed to be staringly obvious, it's complete lack of movement had already suggested as much to me but I thought better of pointing it out, "I found it on the office stairs this morning" she carried on with. So there I am, in the posh
foyer of a world renowned institution, trying to sign into the visitors security log, my white van of wares running outside and with a tiny dead bat in my palm, it was all rather surreal and I was beginning to question quite what she expected me to do with it."I wondered if you might know why it died" Mrs Receptionist woman continued. Ok, so flattered I might be that she even considered my knowledge to include bat physiology but in reality I was at a complete and utter loss of course, to give her anything in reply other than a resounding "no". All I could tell her was it was a Pipistrelle bat and that it was a baby. The little thing was tiny, perfectly formed and so cute but sadly all the cuteness in the world hadn't saved it's little life.
Enter Mrs Receptionists colleague, a man apparently known for his knowledge on birds and who immediately became more help than I had been. He suggested she call the Bat Conservation Trust and see what they had to say.....she found the number, did just that and at the end of an animated conversation replaced the receiver triumphantly announcing they would send someone to collect it soon. It would appear that they too would be interested in how it met it's demise and wanted run some tests to discover if it's fatality was as the result of a strain of rabies carried and suffered by bats!
Hmmmm....that little snippet of information might have been appreciated before I carted it around in my hand inspecting it for 10 minutes!
I hasten to add at this point we are talking a different strain of rabies to that we usually think of, a strain with extremely low incidence.... but loathed though I am to say it, in retrospect there is a part of me that is slightly relieved it was 'beyond' biting me!
By today said dead bat had been duly collected, we await further information.
2 Comments:
Poor little thing. I love bats. We have loads around here with living next to a huge country park. They are so cute aren't they.
LGC: They are very cute :o) Hey, now you say you are near the country park I know where you are properly :o)
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