Daily life with Mandi; a Gelert retrospective

The one and only Gelert, who took over Walter's mantle as boss of the old dudes' residence, died just after Christmas 2025, aged 19, but only now is Mandi able to talk about it. Gelert was hand raised by Mandi after he was found on the ground as a baby, having fallen off his mum. He had a short happy life as one of the crowd, living for years in aviary as a normal bat, joining the others in the sin bin when he was too persistent and harassing the girls. He really loved Cinders who is a year older. Since his death she has been really missing him; they'd been together for almost their entire lives. He had fragile bones and developed back and hip issues, unable to use one leg which was tucked up against his abdomen, but he joined Walter's trampoline aviary in Sydney before Mandi moved to QLD about 10 years ago and when she built the Waltorf Batoria for the oldies, where he lived while Walter ruled the roost. He learned from the very best, from Walter, the Professor of Grump himself, with personal tuition on how to keep the other oldies in line and complain about everything effectively. He held this role for around 5 years following Walter's death in 2020. He was found dead one morning, reason unknown; for a bat he was quite old; it seems like his body just wore out. The previous night Gelert ADORED his personal mango and rolled around in it and experienced the entire full body sticky experience; in morning he just looked like he was asleep, but he was gone. RIP Gelert, the one and only. Mandi's cool room has broken down and repairs/replacement will be really expensive (around $5000AUD). Anyone wanting to donate in for her cool room, could do so in Gelert's memory. And the cool room could be called Gelert. Thanks Mandi for the footage which is given in thanks for the continuing donations which help support the fruit costs for her bats. Tolga Bat Hospital takes donations for Mandi. https://tolgabathospital.org/donate/ Mention Megabattie or Meg in the PayPal message box and the money will find its way to Mandi If no message box appears, please email Jenny to tell her that the money is for Mandi. IMPORTANT: If you pay through the PayPal Giving Fund, can you please email Jenny with the AMOUNT DONATED and the name under which you have donated, OR just forward along the PP receipt. If you specify the amount donated, it makes it heaps easier for Jenny to find the donation. The Giving Fund doesn’t charge any fees (so the bats get more money) but PP doesn’t itemise out the amount, they just send a total every month, and we don’t know if the money is for Tolga or for Megabattie. Here’s Jenny’s email. [email protected]