Rescuing a bat the size of a fingernail
was going to be tricky.
"This one's very small."
So when this baby bat was found in a chimney,
rescuers wondered if they were up for the challenge.
They couldn't find his mother anywhere,
so they told him, "You're coming home with us."
And they gave him a name: Gemini.
Gemini seemed pretty scared and confused.
He didn't know what was happening.
The rescuers wanted him to go back and live on his own,
but he was still much too small to go back
to the wild just yet.
So the first step was getting him some food. But how?
His mouth was so tiny.
The rescuers had a plan.
They put milk on a small paint brush to get him to drink.
But Gemini was like, "A paint brush?"
"I'm a baby bat, not a piece of art."
He still didn't seem to trust his rescuers.
"Come on, buddy."
So they tried another idea, a tiny straw.
And it worked.
"Can you hear him clicking?"
"Yeah."
"That's him asking for feed."
The rescuers were relieved
that he trusted them enough to eat.
And that's when Gemini seemed
to notice the warmth of their hand.
It must have reminded him of snuggling with his mom.
Finally, he started to relax.
For a baby bat, there's nothing quite like being warm
and having a milky beard,
except maybe curling up for a nice little bat nap.
As time went on,
Gemini was starting to move around more in his tank.
It seemed like he was realizing he had wings.
Gemini was like,
"You mean these aren't just for crawling around with?"
His rescuers knew this could only mean one thing:
He was ready to learn how to fly.
But Gemini was nervous.
He was only just getting used to drinking from a straw.
Now he was supposed to soar through the air?
"He's not so confident."
The rescuers wanted to help him feel safe,
and since he seemed to love their warm hand,
that would be the perfect place to start learning.
Gemini must have been thinking,
"Hey, stop moving around so much!"
"Whoa!"
"Come on, you can do it."
"Good boy."
He stretched and then gave a few flaps,
then more flaps...
"Is he stuck?"
"I don't know."
Oh, oh.
You got this, Gemini.
Almost.
Soon, Gemini didn't seem nervous at all anymore.
He couldn't get enough of his big bat food.
Even if he still ate all his meals
inside the safety of the gloved hand.
And he was getting so big
that he was finally ready for flight school —
a place where he could meet new bat friends,
practice flying and learn how to catch food all by himself.
So when the rescuers drove Gemini to the enclosure,
he was already excited to show everyone
how well he could fly.
His rescuer was so proud watching Gemini use his wings
with all of the other bats.
She was sad to say goodbye,
but then the most amazing thing happened.
He landed on her hand.
It was like Gemini wanted to let her know how happy he was.
"Hey, how's it going?"
Gemini was thankful to the rescuers
for all they had done for him, but he couldn't stay long.
He still had a lot of practicing to do
before he would be ready to return to the wild.
The rescuers couldn't believe how far Gemini had come.
That tiny, fingernail-size baby was now a happy, big bat
who would soon be ready to join the other wild bats
and fly off into the night.