Today while walking the dogs I saved, or hope I saved, an adorable little bat. Saw him in the street in front of my house, this little blob of brown stuff, and wondered what it was. When I went to look, I thought it was a dead bat. Touched it with my shoe, and it flopped forward. So I took the dogs in, got some newspaper from the house, and coaxed him up onto it. His wings didn't appear to be injured, but bats can't take flight from the ground. They need a head start. So I scooped him up, and took him to a nearby spot where there are a series of dry stone walls, with cracks in between and vegetation in front. As soon as I put him close to a crack, he crawled in and disappeared. So hopefully he will have been able to take off at dusk and join his many friends here. I've made friends with an Englishwoman who is a vet, and asked her about rabies. We don't pick up downed bats with our bare hands in the US. She said it was possible, but not necessarily likely, as some other problem could have befallen him and caused him to drop out of a tree or attic, and as I said, once they are on the ground they are helpless.
Its a day later, and I found the primo batwatching spot this evening. Scattered throughout the village, on public property (which often looks like it isn't public), are benches provided by the city (see photo of little park above). While walking the dogs at dusk I sat on one of those benches, near one of the village street lights, and several small bats (probably pipistrelles) arrived. This species flies at about human head height as it hunts, so they were flying very close to me. I think this is the same type of bat I found yesterday. I sat there for about 15 minutes while they hunted all around me, it was quite lovely. That will now become part of my evening dog walk.
Tomorrow my family from Oregon arrives: my 94 year old aunt, and two cousins, one of which isn't in very good health. This is a challenging house with all of its stairs, and a challenging village as it is all uphill and downhill. Hoping to preserve the lives of my remaining family members.
I will be looking at a village house with a very nice small garden on Wednesday afternoon -- I have positive vibes from it. It is in an archway directly behind the hundreds of years old church. I am dealing directly with the owner, who has moved to the larger town of Beziers because he is unable to manage the steep streets of the village any more. Stay tuned.
And speaking of steep streets, as much of an annoyance as they are, in the month I've been here I've gained strength and lost pounds (in spite of the bread). When I arrived I sort of staggered up the hills gasping, and yesterday I actually ran up one of them without losing my breath! I wouldn't have thought this was possible, as I am Very Old now.
Photos don't have much to do with any of the text. The cats are those across the street from me, they are hanging out the window at the 2nd to 3rd story level; the other photos are of one of those benches I mentioned in a little public area (beautifully maintained by the woman across the street), and a house with roses hanging over the street. It *is* a very pretty village.
