Bat-man Begins

A few nights ago Adam and I experienced one of the yuckiest and most disturbing things ever (disturbing because we are now very paranoid about anything that flies; read on). It was about 12 midnight and I woke up to hear Adam running down the hall yelling "aaaaarrrrr!" or something similar to that. It sounded to me like he was running and then jumped on something, and I was certain there was an intruder in the house and that Adam had run after him and attacked him. Minutes later I found out what the intruder was when Adam rushed back into the room, slammed the door shut and said "there's a BAT flying around the house!" I know that this is one of God's creatures, but you have to admit it is one of the yuckiest, and definitely not one you want flying around your head. And the worst part of it is that it came from our bedroom, and how it got there in the first place we don't know. But, while I was still sleeping and oblivious to all, Adam woke and heard a scratching noise behind the bedboard. Minutes later he saw something fly up from behind the headboard (which is right by our heads!! Aaaahh!) and start circling the room and eventually fly out into the hall. Then I guess he ran after it to figure out what it was (still a little dopey from sleeping, and hadn't yet clued in that it was actually a bat).
Needless to say, both of us were freaked out to leave the room and have this bat fly at us in its desperate attempt to find freedom. We finally decided to run out and open the outside door and hope that the bat would just fly out. Actually, Adam ran out (with a blanket thrown over his head so he couldn't see the bat flying at him!) and I sat hiding in the room with the door closed! Well, the bat never left and I think we scared it into hiding. Adam searched the entire house, banging on and under everything in hopes to scare the bat out. We couldn't find it, so eventually went back to bed. Neither of us could sleep though, knowing that that disgusting thing was still somewhere in the house. We tried to sleep, but minutes later we heard a scratching on the door and a "whoosh" sound of wings out in the hallway, so we knew the little guy was back. Adam tried to chase the thing out of the house, but it went into hiding once again, although this time Adam saw it fly behind the cupboards or something. Finally found it hiding on top of the cupboards and, standing on top of the table, Adam took out his pellet gun (what is with guys and guns?). He shot the thing on the first try, but took about 8 more shots just to make sure - now we have about 6 pellet holes in our wall and cupboard!! Here is a picture of the disgusting little thing. What makes things even crazier is that the next night, Adam's mom and dad also had a bat flying around in their house! And the night before that there was a bird in their house. Actually, Owen woke up to find a bird flying around in his bedroom so he waited until it flew out, shut the door, and went back to bed! They still haven't found the bird....