diff --git a/dr_botzo/ircbot/bot.py b/dr_botzo/ircbot/bot.py
index d71bccf..f25a4f0 100644
--- a/dr_botzo/ircbot/bot.py
+++ b/dr_botzo/ircbot/bot.py
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 """Provide the base IRC client bot which other code can latch onto."""
 
+from __future__ import unicode_literals
+
 import bisect
 import collections
 import copy