Bad bad bad Bats in the Belfry. (What the heck is a belfry!)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

So…I’m sitting in my chair in my living room. Minding my own dang business when:…some one threw something at the back of my head!
What the holy heck!?

I immediately thought of the grandwrex. No, no couldn’t be them. (Long story, and I digress)

Beside my chair is a book shelf. There are books on the bottom shelf and books on the top shelf. The middle shelf in usually empty, except my latest news paper and any puzzle books I’m doing (thx @VOW)
I look over to the shelf unit. Something moved, on the middle shelf.
Aaaaccckkk!
I jump up. The same moment what ever it was, moved again. I may have screamed at that moment, not sure.

Then the unknown entity, fairy, pixie, gnome or giant house eating, Beck biting, germ carrying, winged RAT, flew. I mean went thru the air at a high rate of speed to the top of the big book shelf, across the room.
Was not a cat.
No birds live here.
Chihuahuas can’t fly.

Ummm? RC hover craft? Nope.

I must investigate this. So I called for Mid-daughter. She refused.
Chicken.
I called Hamza. He’s hemming and hawing.
Chicken liver.

Son-of-a-wrek conveniently drives up.
Ask him. He’ll do anything.

He gets the step stool as soon as his head clears the top of the bookshelf said Alien rat from hell, dives and skitters across the floor toward the kitchen.
(Mid-dau says supper is burning in the oven and heads back to the kitchen)

By this time everyone, but her is in the LR.

Next, we hear a blood curdling screech.
And Mid-dau ran out the french doors to the deck.

The ‘marauding giant Alien rat from hell’ ran out the door and stopped on the deck rail and stood up and chattered at us. Like it was our fault, or something.

Awww. It was a teeny, tiny baby squirrel-y.

We all feel kinda stupid.

How did that get in my house, come to think of it?

I will be looking for hidden entrances the next few days.

Gah!!

2

When do you adopt it, Beck? :smiley:

3

I want it bad. But, alas he has flew the coop.

4

For now. To quote Ahnuld, “I’ll be bahk.”

5

Squirrel friends have played with my emotions before.
They’re 2-timing jerks.

Rats with better wardrobes.
:flushed:

6

They say that “you are what you eat,” and they eat nuts, soooo…

7

If I dream about squirrels tonight…:face_with_hand_over_mouth:

8

So, if I have this right - you say it felt lke something was thrown at the back of your head? Did I read that right, at the beginning?
And it turned out to be a large rat?
Well, attacking the back of your head?
Or maybe falling on it?
I’m just trying to get a clear picture here.
Good thing it didn’t bite at your ear or claw the side of your face or an eye.
Can we already name him Barthelme?

9

My overacting imagination works in mysterious ways.

All I know is I felt something hit the back side of my head.

I live in a house where 2 naughty boys have never learned not to play ball or murder your your baby brother with thrown objects inside the house. They’re always suspect.
(I’ll endeavor to correct this, asap)

It turns out a baby squirrel got in the house. Probably while I was away from home and the grand-wrex we’re going in and out the door, thereby heating the near acreage on my dime.

I’m always concerned with wild animals and pestilence getting inside. 2 naughty boy don’t care one bit. And obviously someone (ahem…their Mom) has neglected this teaching moment.

So …yeah. Do you understand better?

And yeah, I like the name

10

I was so sure it was going to be a bat, and yes, I know they hibernate or migrate, but Beck is the Statue of Liberty for critters. Give her your tired, your poor, your huddled bats-is yearning to breathe free…down your neck.

Last summer I was plagued by a squirrel. He came onto the balcony one day while I was reading, looked startled, and scampered down. Cute, I thought. Hah. The next day I found holes in the soil of my big potted plant. That’s when he started screeching at me from a fence post or tree limb for 45 minutes at a time. It was war for awhile. I planted forks and knives ouchie-side-up. He flung them to the ground. I tried bamboo stakes. He scoffed. I got some prickle strips and that did the trick.

It didn’t matter if I was inside. He’d still face my apartment and screech. This went on every day for two months. Then one day he disappeared. I think the other critters had had enough, made him a tiny pair of cement overshoes, and took him for a little walk to the river.

He was bonkers. I called him Norman. Norman Bates.

Aw, VOW gave you puzzle books? Now THAT is a true friend.

11

Everybody’s ignoring the question in the thread title.

A belfry is the part of a bell tower where they actually put the bells.

Presumably to fry them.

12

She sent me like 100s of them.
None had any puzzles done.

I’m worried she’s in the ‘hot’ puzzle book chop shop line of work.
@VOW is on a witness protection program 'cause she ratted on the other puzzle book pilferers. And they are dangerous types. You can’t go around messing with them.
She just says she visiting her kids.
It’s all an act.

Then again she might’ve been gifted way more than she could ever finish and have a real life.

13

Thank you. I’ve always wanted to know that.:smirk:

14

A squirrel ain’t nuthin’. In a previous house I once woke up to noises in the living room, and found a masked bandit:

He had come in through the fireplace chimney, and on seeing my sleepy self, tried (but failed) to climb up the wall, leaving a sooty mess.

I opened the front door and, with the aid of a broom, showed him the way out.

I think I managed to get back to bed without actually really waking up. Later in the day the whole thing seemed like a dream except for the interesting artwork on the wall.

If it had been you, Beck, instead of me, I’m sure that my home invader by now would have a name, would be Clarence’s best friend, and would be living on a steady diet of Cheerios. :wink:

15

We’ve had a Raccoon issue. It was in the barn. Eating up Mr.Wrek dog feed up. And generally tearing up things.
I had bags of top soil for my flower beds out there. The Raccoons had a dirt orgy one night.

It’s never safe to touch a wild Raccoon, especially in the . They’re almost the top of the list of wild animals to be rabid.

16

Bats in a church belfry are bad news. They crap everywhere, but they are protected so you can’t [legally] evict the flying rats.

I have a friend who rings as a hobby. She belongs to a group of ladies who travel around the country ringing changes in churches.

17

This summer I was walking down to our barn for some reason. My gf was yelling, trying to get my attention, but I had my headphones on so I did not hear her. She had on her good slippers (yes, she has good slippers) and didn’t want to walk on the grass.

So, she picked up a piece of gravel from the driveway and threw it as hard as she could, thinking I’d see it bounce ahead of me and turn around. Turns out she fired a perfect line-drive and hit me in the back of my head.

I saw stars. I heard sitars. I do not remember why it was so important that she get my attention.

18

Many, many years ago:

Three humans of at least two genders in their twenties, and one large Husky dog, all sharing a house.

(There was also a cat, but she stayed out of this story.)

Three humans in their twenties and one large Husky dog, all clustered together at the top of the stairs in the middle of the night, because there are NOISES downstairs.

Three humans trying to get the dog to go down first. Dog replying, in the closest approximation to Canine English that I’ve ever heard (he didn’t have the consonants, and he didn’t have all the vowels right, but he had the intonation down absolutely perfectly): “I’m not gonna go down those stairs first if you’re all afraid to go down those stairs first!”

Eventually, we went down the stairs, as a group (I think the dog came last.)

– yup. It was a squirrel.

19

Although as intriguing as it may sound, I’m not in any puzzle book cartel.

Penny Press has little ads in their puzzle books where bundles of books are offered for a ridiculously small amount of money.

Ask my family: I get carried away and go overboard on everything. Why buy one when you can get ten?

I bought so many a dump truck arrived and unloaded a mountain of the damned things in the driveway. I had them under the bed, tucked in the tops of closets, shoved in nooks and crannies in the garage…

When Beck picked her favorite chair at the dialysis center, she put out the call for entertainment. She didn’t want to count the holes in the acoustic tile on the ceiling. (Voice of experience: you always lose count, and have to start all over again.) I immediately thought “Aha! Puzzle books!”

I am not appreciative of four-legged critters in the house except for the invited ones. I’ve heard of squirrel fleas carrying bubonic plague, bats with rabies, and raccoons causing nightmares. My kids lived in a mobile home community where raccoons were rampant. They feasted in outside garbage cans and achieved monster status by growing to the size of medium-sized dogs. They charged at people, attacked small pets, and generally ruled the world.

Enjoy your puzzle books, dear Beck!

~VOW

20

Proof there really are bats in (the) Belfry…

:grin: