[this post has been flagged for inconsistent pronoun gender, deal with it]
Today was a momentous day in Help Desk/ITD history. Indeed, today saw the creation of the #helpdeskbat hash tag.
As I was diligently responding to tickets at the Help Desk, I heard Jill shriek in the entry way. “BAT!” There arose such a clatter that I sprung up from the Desk to see what was the matter. At this point our furry little pal half-heartedly flapped his way through the door and into my heart. I called the front office to request reinforcements.
Jill created a sign for the door saying “DO NOT ENTER — BAT! (no, really.)” We didn’t want to frighten the fellow or risk anyone getting rabies. Regrettably I had to nobly continue to help GSLIS folks so I could not stay to see every second of the bat’s visit, but I was able to capture some photos. I got within a couple feet of it and it looked at me, wiggled its ears, and squeaked at me. As I do not speak Bat, I could not understand what was being communicated, but I imagine it was disapproval at the whole situation.
Eventually the bat became agitated and flew around looking threatening. Jill and I shrieked and hid in her office and Karla and the new ITD GAs were trapped in room 242 watching the insanity. Due to my perpetual communication with GSLIS IT staff, I spread the word to the ITD GAs who ran down and looked amazed and frightened. (Thanks to Bill, JP and Juliana for joining in the mayhem). Sally came up with a cardboard box intending to catch the bat but it still eluded us. JP stepped in but his attempts to capture it were unsuccessful, as were Dan’s perhaps more spirited efforts.
Soon after this the bat had had enough of our shenanigans and flew down the hall and straight into Mike Twidale’s office. It was drawn immediately to his Netbook where it stayed until Animal Control came to rescue it.
Although some folks were convinced that the #helpdeskbat would succumb to a cruel Animal Control fate (see here: http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:_pfPfHwsKO8J:www.co.champaign.il.us),Erik Hege confirmed to me that Animal Control will release him into the wild. And I trust Erik Hege. I like to think the #helpdeskbat went to the Bat Farm where he can fly about with bat-friends (les chauve-souris-amis), hang from rainbows, and eat bugs. (props to @msmollyd for this lovely vision.)
More bat resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat
http://mimosasonthefrontlawn.blogspot.com/2009/02/bats-arent-bugs.html (from Juliana)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/notbrucelee/3832482422/
Also, submissions of Bat Cookies will be accepted at the Help Desk and ITD forever and ever:
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