BROCKMAN

Then, of course, there are also the genuine heart-felt caregivers. Ann received a call, for example, from a distraught couple in a farming community about 25 miles north of us. They had found a tiny, furless baby bat on their barn floor, an infant that had dropped from a wild nursery roost over 50 feet up in the rafters, surviving only because of its small size and tough skin. They were desperate, and offered to bring the baby to us in order to save valuable time for repair. Arriving with amazing speed, the man came struggling up our sidewalk with a HUGE 10-gallon bucket that he could hardly manage, draped to the ground with a large bath towel. Ann wondered, "Just how big is this baby?!!" When uncovering the bucket to reach the rescued infant, she first removed a damp cloth used to keep the baby hydrated, followed by another soft towel that was gently covering a folded woolen ski cap. Opening this hat, Ann found a teeny, 1 ½" to, 2 days old, sleeping soundly in his warm, moist environment. The ski cap was sitting on another larger towel that was covering a bucket full of SOD!! No wonder the man was struggling! The couple watched her examine the uninjured infant, and when she put the baby safely in our soft, cozy incubator, they finally returned home, but called every few days until "their" bat was stabilized. "Brockman" was released this summer.