Behind the Lines: by David Heiller

David Heiller The bat flew through the cabin last week as only a bat can fly, dodging and darting like a furry whiffle ball, Everybody screamed and yelled and cleared out of the room except my daughter Malika and me. The question popped into my head: Do I kill this bat? I quickly answered no. A bat, the kind that startles us, and freaks so many of us out, and eats multitudes of pesky insects. I doubt that I will ever kill a bat again after reading an article about them in National Geographic a few years ago. The article talked about how bats consume astounding numbers of bugs. Any critter that kills bugs gets a reprieve from me. (My compassion ends when it comes to killing bugs.) First I took off my T-shirt and tried to trap the bat against a ceiling or wall. But he always seemed to flutter away at the last moment. And I thought they were blind. I had him trapped behind a picture frame once, and called Malika over to hold the frame while I slipped the shirt ov...