Batman in training

We have a bat in the house, ok, make that two and it's not the cute one pictured above that I am referring to. Yesterday I went down to the basement to get some meat out of the freezer I stepped over to drop something in the trash and out flew something from somewhere. The details are a little blurred. I screamed and ran over to the futon and covered my head with a pillow. At this point still not sure if it is a bat or a sparrow. Then it swooped and fluttered my way again so I screamed again and made a dash for the stairs, pillow still covering my head and slammed the door to the basement. Fortunately Dane slept through all of this. I called Andy then got brave enough to go check it out again. Thinking and hoping it was a bird I would open the door from the basement to the garage and it would fly out. I found an umbrella in the car and put that over my head. The neighbors probably think I am a little nutty now. I opened the basement door from the garage and... nothing. I slowly walked around, then started straightening up a bit. I ended up finding our tennis rackets in the car so I was armed with an umbrella and a tennis racket still treading carefully looking around and nothing. Now Andy questions me on the phone if I am sure I saw something. Of course I saw something.

He gets home from work and goes to check it out he went around a corner and then turned his head and there it was hanging from a shelf like 2 feet from his face. Freaked him out a little but for sure and for certain it was a bat. He gets himself all pumped up and prepared to get it and heard it fluttering around and waited. He spent the rest of the night walking around trying to find it searching our basement high and low. Turning off all the lights hoping it would come out of hiding then turning on the lights hoping to surprise it. Nothing. I guess that means there is still a bat in the house? Or did it leave on his own?

Today all the lights are on in the basement running up our electricity bill just hoping to keep the bat in hiding so it won't jump out and scare the pee out of me. Every time I go downstairs I am armed with a tennis racket and proceed with caution checking every nook and cranny I can think of. It is getting annoying because our washer and dryer are down there and we have laundry backing up but I am a little nervous to put down the racket and turn my back for fear the bat will surprise me again. That is the worst part, the anticipation of something jumping out and fluttering and swooping in my face and hair.

*I forgot to mention, I read online that after you catch the bat, like pick it up with a towel or cloth that you are supposed to talk soothingly to it as you let it go outside. I will leave it to your imagination as to what may happen if mr. bat ever gets found :o) I will talk soothingly to it of course.