Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. I had an amazing week because Bat Week began on Wednesday. Bat Week is an entire week dedicated to our furry little friends. In honor of Bat Week, I read some stories starring bats. People all over the world have stories, myths, and fables featuring bats as main characters. I read one fable by Aesop about a very smart little bat. All of Aesop’s fables have a moral or lesson to be learned. Obviously, Aesop knew bats were very intelligent creatures because he is the smart one in this story. I was going to paraphrase the story, but since I can’t tell a story as well as Mr. Aesop could, here is the story as he wrote it…

 Aesop’s Fable – The Cage Bird and the Bat

“A singing bird was confined in a cage which hung outside a window, and had a way of singing at night when all other birds were asleep. One night a Bat came and clung to the bars of the cage, and asked the Bird why she was silent by day and sang only at night. ‘I have a very good reason for doing so,’ said the Bird. ‘It was once when I was singing in the daytime that a fowler was attracted by my voice, and set his nets for me and caught me. Since then I have never sung except by night.’ But the Bat replied, ‘It is no use your doing that now when you are a prisoner:  If only you had done so before you were caught, you might still have been free.’”

The moral of the story is that “Precautions are useless after the crisis.”

Isn’t he a smart little bat?

And now for a very special reminder. Today is the day that the US Botanic Gardens in DC is having its annual Bat Bonanza! That’s right! It’s a day full of batty activities! Save Lucy will be there with some amazing bats for everyone to meet. So, please join us in the Conservatory of the Botanic Gardens between 10:00 and 5:00 today. I hope to see you there.

I hope everyone has a fun week and Happy Halloween!!!