Anniversaries and bats

Our first year of marriage was great.  It was everything we wanted.

Okay, realistically, it was fine.  It wasn't really that much different than the year before when we lived together and were engaged.  We laughed, we cried, we fought, we made up.  You know the drill.

Anyways, the story here is about our first anniversary.  Or rather, the night of our first anniversary.  Don't get nervous.  It's not that kind of story.

We went to bed at a reasonable hour and fell asleep like any normal night.  Until about 2am.  I woke up because I had to pee and tried to sneak out of bed as careful as I could without waking up my sleeping husband and puppies.  I slipped out from under the covers and went to the bathroom, then slipped back in, barely breathing.  I succeeded!  Both the husband and the puppies were still sleeping.

And then I heard it.  I heard a scratching by the back of the room, only a couple of feet away from my head.  It sounded like fingers on a black board.  I stopped breathing again, listening to the sound.  I couldn't figure out if I was hearing things, dreaming, or if Freddie Cruger was scratching at my window.  I didn't dare move or make a sound.

Finally, I felt Jon move in the bed.  He turned around and I quietly whispered to ask if he was awake.  He said he was and couldn't figure out what the sound was.  I signed in relief that I wasn't going insane.  Then my momentary relief turned to fear.  Freddie Cruger?  We heard the dogs start to move around as well and that was as much anticipation as we could take.  I reached over to my night stand and turned on the light.

It took a couple of minutes for our eyes to readjust to the light and we began to see a little shadow crawling up and down the window by my head.  I tried to concentrate as much as I could and I noticed Jon doing the same.

"Is that...?" I couldn't finish my sentence as my eyes readjusted to the light and I realized what it was.  Jon finished my sentence with a panicked "BAT!"

I ducked under the blanket and hid under the layers.  I was still hearing the scratching on the window.  And then I felt someone under the covers with me.

"Jon?" I said quietly as if the bat was going to hear me.

"Yeah?" he replied almost as quietly.

"Are you under the covers?"

"Yeah."

What the heck?  Was my strong, manly, head of the house shaking under the covers with me?

"Get out and get the bat!" I screeched.

"No way! You go."

Okay, this was an issue.  One of us had to be the man of the house and he wasn't stepping up.  What the heck?  It was a tiny little critter!  What was he going to do if a burglar broke in?  Hide in the closet while I beat him up?  This was ridiculous.  I nudged him under the covers.

I was terrified that the dogs were going to get some sort of disease from the bat, so I lifted a tiny corner of the blanket and quietly beckoned the pups to climb into bed.  They jumped under the covers happily since they weren't often allowed in bed.  And here we were - our family of 4 - shaking under the covers from a tiny little bat.

We finally heard nothing for a brief moment and Jon peaked his head from under the covers to check on the bat.  He said it looked like it was just sitting, so he bolted for the door and waved me over.  I peaked from under the covers just in time to see the bat move and quickly covered back up, letting out a little yelp.  Jon shut the door.  With me and the dogs inside.  On our own. WHAT THE HELL?

I yelled for him to come back and help us, but he was gone.  I panicked, but he was back quickly with a Tupperware to trap the bat.  He turned on the main light in the room and the bat started flying around the room.  I screamed, Jon hid behind the door, but finally captured the bat in the Tupperware and released it outside.

And that marked our 1 year anniversary.