Houston, Texas - Over one thousand bats were rescued after going into shock from the freezing cold weather in Houston last week. And in an unusual saga, the animals were released back into the wild after being nursed back to health in a nearby house.

The attic of a house in Houston became a real bat cave last week as it temporarily housed over1,600 flying critters!

Winter storm Elliot and a cold snap that rolled across the US last week not only wreaked havoc on humans, but on many animals across the country as well.

Bat roosts in Texas were particularly hard hit, as the cold caused hundreds of bats at time to lose their grip and fall from their perches.

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Luckily, animal rescuers answered the bat call.

Mary Warwick, the wildlife director of the Houston Humane Society, found hundreds of Mexican free-tailed bats lying on the ground under a local bridge, according to the AP. The bats looked half dead and frozen.

She quickly packed as many of the creatures up in a cardboard box as she could and took them home. Soon, the little bats started chirping as the warmth of her seat heater revived them.

She ended up making more trips and kicking off a huge bat rescue effort. Over the next few days, animal rescue workers saved over 1,600 of the animals.

Mexican free-tailed bats, like sea turtles and many other animals, can't handle freezing temperatures. It can cause them to go into hypothermic shock, and in the case of the Texas bats, plunge to the ground.

As the Houston Humane Society explained, these bats "are tiny, and have minimal body fat, so they are not able to live long when laying exposed on the ground in freezing temperatures."

Warwick, the only person who rehabilitates bats in the Houston area, took it upon herself to turn her own attic into a temporary roost for the flying critters. They were kept separated by bat colony with dog kennels. Wildlife rescuers continued to regularly scoop up the bats, give them fluids, and keep them warm in incubators.

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Although more than 100 bats died in the cold, and some from falling between 15 and 30 feet from underneath the bridge overhangs they call home, all in all, the humane society was pleased with how many were saved.

On Wednesday, 1,500 of the bats were released back into their habitats. The humane society posted a video of hundreds of the "poor babies" returning to the Pearland Fite Road Bridge. They also broadcasted the release of 700 of the critters at Waugh Bridge over Buffalo Bayou via Facebook live. A crowd gathered to watch them take flight.

Warwick may even miss the house guests, and said she enjoyed checking on them and nursing them back to health.

The Houston Humane Society is trying to raise money to add a bat room to their facilities, so that she won't have to use her house again.