I'm not sure if it was the wisecracks from last night or what, but while Layla and I were lounging in the living room, a freaking bat flew out of the fireplace and up into the top floor. You may recognize the picture at right as the spot where the cats like to run up near the ceiling of our office.
So, part of this explains why Fifo got into the fireplace twice in the last two days, and, much to his little feline displeasure, had to have two baths to wash off all of the soot. I suspect he's been trying to get at the bat, who was presumably busy wiggling past the closed trap.
But tonight the bat got out, and we tried to chase him around the office with a laundry basket and a sheet before finally realizing that the screen really is removable from our second-floor window and that the subsequent opening is more than large enough for a bat to find his way out.
How to catch a bat in your house:
:)
That assumes that the bat stops freaking out and has landed somewhere accessible. This little guy didn't stop flying for a really damned long time, and he ended up perching himself a solid 9' in the air. Once we had taken the window screen out, Layla actually poked him with ... an easel. And even then, that was a stretch.