BatBird. Short audio story narrated in American English.

There was once a bat for whom having to go out and hunt insects was just a terrible amount of effort. He was such a lover of comfort that, one day, when he happened to look through a window and saw a bird in its cage, and that it was given all its food and water without having to do anything at all, the bat decided to become a child’s pet.

The bat changed his whole routine. He got up at dawn to fly to parks so he could be spotted by some child who might adopt him as a pet. However, as bats aren’t particularly attractive, the children paid him little attention. So the bat decided to improve his appearance. He made a beak, stuck a load of feathers to his body, and learned how to whistle so that his bat calls weren’t quite as horrible as before. And so it was, that with great good fortune, he met a little boy who hardly every wore his glasses and was so short-sighted that this strange-looking black little bird’s ridiculous appearance didn’t really matter.

The bat was happy in his cage, in a warm and comfortable house. There he felt like the best of all bats, and certainly the cleverest. But that feeling lasted only up to the time he started feeling hungry. When he wanted to eat there were no flies or insects there for him, only a load of birdseed and cereal for which the bat felt the height of disgust... So much so, that he was determined to die of hunger rather than sample that bird food. However, his new owner, noticing the bat getting thinner, decided he wasn’t going to let his little bird starve to death. Using a syringe and a spoon, he made sure that this was the first bat ever to become intimately acquainted with birdseed...

Some days later, the batbird managed to escape the cage and return home. He was so ashamed and embarrassed that he made sure he told no one what had happened. However, he couldn’t stop the other bats commenting on how much effort he now made when they were out hunting flies, how strong and tough he had become, and how he no longer seemed to worry about the inconveniences and discomforts of living in freedom.