My Fear of Winged Things....

Inspired by my friend Laura's post I wanted to share my story. These stories are years old so you can understand if they aren't perfect in their details. Other witnesses may remember it differently but this is how it happened in my brain....

It was the summer when I was 15 turning 16 and my sister Katie was home for the summer from college. We were sharing a room and she wanted me to open the window to cool it off. I open the blinds and out pops a bat! She ran screaming and closed the door behind her and I jumped under the covers. It got quiet after a while so I poked my head out but then the bat swooped down and grabbed my hair in his claw and was circling my head. I smacked it and hid again screaming for my Dad to come rescue me. Then ten minutes later I popped my head out again and it was gone. I opened the door and ran to my parents room where my Dad, Mom, and sister were hiding. I knocked on the door and my Dad told me I couldn't come in because he didn't want the bat in his room. I convinced him I was not the bat and it wasn't with me so he came out and we all looked for it but with no luck. We all went to bed but didn't sleep well.

The next night I was home alone and the dog started barking and I heard hissing. I looked over and the bat was crawling across the kitchen floor pulling itself by one claw. I grabbed the dog and the phone and we ran outside and called around until I got a member of my family. My sister was going to be off of work 1.5 hours later so I waited outside for her and when we went back inside no bat.

The next day all my family still living at home (my parents, Brian, and Katie) were packed into my Dad's office with the door closed. Someone wanted a drink and I was voted to go get it. I bravely looked around for the bat while I was out and saw one little claw and a bit of wing poking around the china cabinet. I went and got my Dad to come get it and he got an ovenmit for his hand a towel wrapped around his arm and tongs to get the bat. We all waited on the far end of the house about 50 or more feet away while he grabbed it. He got it but it squeaked and hissed and he dropped it and ran to hide behind us, what a chicken! He then trapped it under a box and used a cookie sheet to pick it up and deliver it outside.

I only wish the story ended there. My sister decided the thing was hungry and started to throw grapes at it, of course making it mad, and it started to crawl toward her. She decided they were just too big so she bit them in half and repeated at which point we made her come inside. The next day I notice a cat leaving our yard with something furry and with wings in its mouth.

-------

A year later I was walking in to the bank to deposit my paycheck when this black bird swoops out of nowhere and lands on my head with it's claws digging into my scalp. Needless to say I freaked and smacked it off my head and ran into the bank. I was panting when I got in there and the woman behind the counter was looking at me like I was a freak.

-------

Another year after that I was in Walt Disney World with my family and my friend Lisa and a seagull swooped out of nowhere and body slammed me in the head. Then it turned around and squawked at me and started to charge.

-------

A little over a year after that I was on campus at BYU walking to class when this butterfly comes out of nowhere and lands on my glasses. It will not get off for anything. I took them off and I was shaking them like crazy but couldn't get the butterfly to release its grasp. Eventually right before class starts it decided to go find another perch.

So there is the long and detailed basis of why I really really hate all things with wings.