Down the road was probably a really safe place to release your bat. Anywhere close to it's territory would be good. You can rest assured that you saved him! When we began having trouble I did a lot of research and once bats find a place they like it's really hard to get rid of them. They like their territories!

Rabies are like the flu - either everyone has it or no one has it. Western Washington has had only a couple cases in a very long time so I wasn't worried especially when I discovered the pup and realized that the mother undoubtedly thought it was justified! We were quite worried about how to deal with the pup and we called the vet for advice. When they learned that we knew where the bats were holing up they figured that there would be no probs with the mom finding it again. The little thing was squeaking for all it was worth. I'm glad we had the hot water bottle though. I think that bats are maybe a bit sensitive to cold.

In retrospect, though we had a lot of clean up in the attic, it was kind of a fun/interesting experience. I expect I wouldn't have thought so if we hadn't won back our attic!