Name NPR's pet bat/Video by Bill Chappell and Wright Bryan

If you were a little bat spending December alone in the city, you would probably be more than capable of finding ways to enjoy your solitude. Eating at irregular hours; sleeping all day; not shopping for a whole colony's worth of Christmas presents — all these things could easily become rewards in themselves.

But let's say that hasn't worked out that great for you — and you're feeling a little ignored in all the holiday bustle. Would it help if a group of people kept an eye on you, and reported on your daily activities? No? Too stalkerish? How about we throw in a camera crew?

Yes, it has come to this.

 

With people clamoring to see more of the bat blogged about two days ago, I went with my pal Wright Bryan to see how this bat — this little silver-haired bat living in the side of a building — would come off on camera.

I admit, we were a little worried about making an interesting video. After all, he or she is basically a bat whose main trick seems to be sleeping in noisy places. But I think both of us felt all those worries fall away when we realized how cute this darned bat really is.

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Andrew Prince/NPR

Anyone think its face looks like a cat's?

We didn't really want to have a "Bat-Cam" — a good thing, since we don't have one. So we made a video, with the help of video gurus John Poole and David Gilkey, of the bat in various states of repose. And the bat seemed open to the idea — instead of sleeping on its side, with its back to the world, we found a bat helpfully looking out toward the world.

It was a sidewalk photo-op, and we took advantage. I guess you could call us batarazzi — but, you know, well-intentioned batarazzi.