The cats tussle once in a while in the middle of the night, so I didn’t think too much of Virginia, our hunter cat, hopping up and down at 3:30 a.m. As I was becoming more awake, I also heard the shade pull banging against the window. That could mean that she was trying to get a bug or a spider. I rolled onto my back, opened my eyes and then spotted the unmistakable swooping and silhouette of a bat close to the ceiling.

“There’s a BAT in here!” I screamed.

My husband is a sound sleeper and falls asleep within moments of hitting the pillow and does not wake up till about 5 a.m. He did reply, however, “It’s probably a moth.”

“It’s NOT A MOTH!” I yelled as I was hightailing it to the bathroom. I shut the door tight and jammed a towel into the crack at the bottom of the door.

I garnered up enough courage after five minutes to peer out and see what was happening. My husband was guarding the room saying, “He is running out of steam now.” Indeed he was and was swooping much closer to eye level rather than at the ceiling. My husband then said, “I’ll get the cats out of here and then I will open the screens — hopefully he will fly out.”

Virginia, the hunter, of course figured she had a sure catch and would have nothing to do with leaving the room. Rather, she perched on my desk and awaited her turn to get at the bat. This was told to me, as I was still in the bathroom.

Then my husband said, “He’s gone.”

I slowly came out of the bathroom, lay down, but of course did not sleep. I finally drifted off at about 5 a.m. to the sounds of gentle snoring next to me. Vigilant Virginia was still waiting for her prey.

Since the bat’s visit, I have discovered that many people have had bats in their home. The receptionist at my veterinarian’s office recounted her experience: She awoke to a strange noise and upon opening her eyes, saw a bat swooping right above her head.

We all have heard that bats do not in fact get entangled in your hair, but that doesn’t mean much when you have the thing flying around your bedroom. And we also have all heard, “It’s much more afraid of you than you are of him.” I doubt it. But I decided to do a little research.

Bats are the only flying mammals. They are nocturnal, therefore are most active at night and sleep during the day hanging upside down. There are more than 900 species of bats. While flying, bats send out high-pitched sounds that bounce off of other objects. Though they can see, sight is not their primary sense. Also, all a bat needs is half an inch to get in somewhere.

According to Wikipedia, the bat’s most distinguishing feature is that their forelimbs are developed as wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of flight. The bat is a primary animal associated with characters of the night, both villains like Dracula and heroes like Batman. The association of the fear of the night was treated as a literary challenge by Kenneth Oppel, who wrote a series of novels beginning with “Silverwing” in which the bats are the heroes.

Austin, Texas, now has one of the most unusual and fascinating tourist attractions anywhere. When the Congress Avenue Bridge was built in 1980, no one envisioned that the new crevices beneath the bridge would make an ideal bat roost. The residents of Austin tried to get rid of the bat population until Bat Conservation International stepped in and told Austinites the truth about bats: They are actually very sophisticated animals and the bat-watchers have nothing to fear unless they handle the bats. Additionally, every night, the Austin bats eat from 10,000 to 20,000 pounds of insects. Today, the Congress Avenue Bridge is the largest urban bat colony in North America with as many as 1.5 million bats spiraling into the sky. I have seen this phenomenon and it truly is a sight to see. As long as they are not in the house, it is a sight to see.

Care to learn more about bats? Check out the Bat Conservation International Web site at www.batcon.org.