Batgirl
Last week I happened to stumble upon an "Adopt-a-Bat" program and decided that it was a great opportunity to donate to a good cause. I have been an avid Batman fan my whole life, and I like animals, so why not? It's a bit of a break from my Pet Smart donations...bats need love too after all.
What kind of animal lover would I be if I discriminated against the less-cute animals of the world?
A couple of months ago I had my first encounter with a bat, and I was pleasantly surprised with how cute it was. I was at my friend Josh's house and we were outside sitting under his porch table having a nice conversation and enjoying the weather.
The sun was blaring down, and as Josh unrolled the table's umbrella he suddenly said, "My bat is back!"
"Guano" as he calls him, had been posting up in the folded umbrella during the day and sleeping, then patrolling the backyard at night for bugs. Apparently Guano hadn't been around in a couple of days and had decided to make an appearance that day.
I had never seen a bat up close before so I took a peek.
The little bat looked like a mouse with wings. He opened his eyes and blinked at me as if to say, "Hey! Turn that light off! I'm trying to sleep here! Dang!"
So cute. We rolled the umbrella back up and let him go back to sleep, but I was captivated by the little guy. It's always so cool to run across an animal you never really thought twice about and suddenly have a new appreciation for. So when I saw the bat adoption program I thought of little Guano and was pretty excited.
I told my husband Taylor about my Adopt-a-Bat venture while we were out in Bricktown Friday night having drinks with friends- waiting until we were both a little lit, in a moment that he might find my the bat situation endearing and humorous....
"By the way babe," I say, as a group of us headed towards the next watering hole destination, laughing and joking around and enjoying the good vibes.
"I adopted a bat species to help conserve in northwestern Oklahoma! Isn't that neat?"
He looked at me like I was crazy. "What? Why?"
"I donated some money to a bat conservation laboratory so that they won't go extinct- you know? Like Guano? I told you about Guano~ bats are so cute!"
Since he was a little tipsy, he just heaved a big sigh and went with it.
"How much was it? Did you get a receipt?"
Always get a receipt, he says. So we can write it off our taxes or something. I donated a bunch of crap from our garage to an international student group's garage sale to raise funds for a trip with Habitat for Humanity a few weeks ago. I didn't think to get a receipt and got a brief lecture on the importance of tax write offs....YAWN.
"$25," I answer, but reassured him that I adopted the bat in his name and we will put the glossy 4x6 picture of the species I chose on the wall in study.
This didn't seem to make him feel anymore enthusiastic about the bat adoption, but I am banking on how funny it will be once Christmas rolls around, after he has forgotten about the Bat adoption, and he unwraps a nice framed picture of a Townsend's Big-Eared Bat, adopted in his name.:)
The "Adopt-a-Bat" program supports the conservation of bats in their habitats in western Oklahoma, through the University of Central Oklahoma's Selman Living Laboratory- the university's biological field station located near Freedom, Oklahoma in the northwestern part of the state.
I didn't even know we have a bat conservation laboratory here. I love discovering things like this in our state!
