Wednesday 27 October 2010

Big Ears

Brown Long-eared Bat

Sometimes at night, when all the neighbours are asleep and the street is deadly quiet, Frankie cat and Ethel like to secretly tip-toe beyond their back door to their tiny walled garden.
In the daytime it is a hive of activity. There's Ethel's vegetable patch, where the leeks jostle with the broccoli, eager to find more space to grow. The wooden shed where Frankie cat likes to sit in amongst the seed packets and garden tools and the huge cabbage tree swaying in the wind, which always reminds Ethel of being in Lisbon, her favourite travel destination.
At night though all is asleep. The bumblebees settle in their nest, the Great tits sleep on their branches and the neighbours tuck themselves up in their blankets. This is Ethel's and Frankie cats' favourite time. They sit out alone with the big round moon for company lighting up the dark black sky, all alone apart from the special night time visitor. If Ethel looks up and if she is lucky, a strange winged creature catches her eye. Ethel tries to touch him but he's always too fast, darting through the sky, but if she chats very quietly the visitor likes to listen. You see he has the most extraordinary ears to hear with, much bigger than Frankie cats', more sensitive than Ethel's, he is a Brown Long-eared Bat. Even if Ethel whispers he can hear every word she says. They can happily sit there for hours, gossiping, and no one else can hear them, not even the local mouse.