A Bat in the Basement

It's the dead of winter, and a cold, snowy winter it has been thus far. The finished part of our basement is unheated - which is a bit strange considering that the unfinished part is - and so it's been hovering at a frosty 10 - 11 degrees.
And yet the other night we had a bat swooping around our rec room.
I thought that bats hibernated during the winter! And I know that they will often hibernate in the attic, but there is no access from our attic to our basement (that I know of). So how did it get downstairs in the first place and why is it awake in the second?
Max thought it was because the dogs were downstairs with us, and barking as they played ( so maybe they woke it up??). And it had been quite mild (it almost got up to 0 outside), so maybe the bat got confused and woke up thinking it was spring?
I managed to get it back into the unfinished part of the basement and shut the door, but now I don't know what to do with the poor bat. I think that if we catch it and put it outside, it will freeze. I'm not crazy about leaving it in there, because I'm pretty sure that bat droppings aren't good for us (and I don't want to find them in the boxes I've got stored down there!).
Now the problem is that I can't find it! There are windows in that part of the basement, and so it's really bright during the day. I've gone looking (in a timid sort of fashion) but can't seem to find it hanging anywhere. So maybe my dilemma is moot point, but that's no solution.....

First Winter

We've survived so far, us transplanted city folk.
The pickup truck with the plow attachment was out of the mechanic's shop, pretty much road worthy, in time for the first major snowfall - thankfully. We got snowed in (like most of Ontario) and spent four days plowing and shovelling out ( I like to refer to MY job as hand-plowing). I had bought a 'sleigh shovel' in anticipation of that storm, and it has become my best winter tool... easy on the back, efficient at moving lots of snow in a short amount of time, and great at creating high wind-breaking banks alongside the drive. This is our winter to figure out 'logical snow piling'... where best to plow in the banks so that we can keep adding and adding and adding without running out of space. Where to start so that the most gets cleared with the least amount of 'hand-plowing'. After every snowfall, we congratulate ourselves on gravelling out the yard so that the parking area is expanded - it's all taken up by snow, now. It will be interesting to see how the grass made out, come the spring - it takes practice to keep the plow blade low enough to scrape the snow but high enough to spare the grass.
We lost a shocking number of shingles during the fierce winds after Boxing Day, along with a section of our chimney stack. Thankfully the shingles were the 3rd layer, so the roof seems sound (a hasty climb into the attic only showed 1 small leak, which can be put off until the snow starts to clear) and Max was able to do a repair on the stack (again, to last until spring when we re-do the roof). I had to hide in the basement, though - the sound of the wind tearing around and over the house and garages was terrifying. I guess the longer I live here, the more I'll trust the house not to fall down or the roof to rip off.
We've started feeding the birds, and now have dozens of them daily - everything from a pair of cardinals to the typical flock of starlings, with lots of finches, sparrows and blue jays in between. It's hard to distinguish them in their winter feathers, but I'm trying to learn the different species. It's also interesting to see how they interact as they feed - the Northern Mockingbird ( I think that's what it is) seems to take on the 5 blue jays, and the starlings are every bit the gluttons that the bird books say they are. I've taken to scattering the food out in a few places, and hanging suet balls on a few trees, just to give the smaller birds a chance. 2 days ago we had a flock of snow buntings show up and they looked amazing from below as they flew off together. It's a pretty terrific change from the city, where the number of species seems so limited (and limited enough to have prevented me from ever before taking interest in learning how to distinguish them!)
So far, we seem to have done little to embarrass ourselves as 'the city folk'... we even got the chance to offer our neighbour a tow when he got stuck at the end of his (mile-long) drive. I think that the '86 Chevy pickup truck (with the remarkable plow blade proudly riding out front) has done a lot to improve our reputation.