Naked Chasing Gerbils

[smokingboot]

OK that's it. It's been in my mind and I have tentatively put feelers out over the past few days, but now I am sure. They've got to go.

It's not that I don't think they're funky; I've had three and I've had twenty, and despite their disturbingly complex relationships all too reminiscent of LARPing at its most bi-polar, I think they are great. But I find myself in the irritating situation where I have guests coming this weekend, and I can't offer both a bedroom because the blue room has become Gerbil City; This morning, it became post-twister Gerbil City.


I was staggering to the bathroom when I heard a rather loud scuttling noise from the blue room. It was early, I was just out of bed, and yet, with that bleary understanding that comes when nothing else is in your head, I recognised it. One of the little sods had got out again. If he wasn't returned to his community quickly, there would be no going back. So in I went, and spent a good hour chasing the reprobate around the room, thoroughly ransacking it on the way. It looks an utter shambles now, and as for me, naked and covered with dust, I look like Adam, born from the clay.

Turned out there was good reason for the volume of the scuttling; the escapee was FingerlickinFred, grandfather, patriarch, and genial fat boy. FLF has no fear because he has no brain; even for a fat boy he gave me the runaround most skillfully, though the yowling scratching demons at the door were very ready to come in and give him a real run for his money. I got him in the end, and dumped him back in the cage, waiting for that moment where they either accepted him or try to kill him. It would have been horrible to see them attack their daddy/granddaddy; a real greek tragedy, Oedipus without a point. But they didn't, cos it was Fred and he's always been Fred, and all that weight serves a purpose among these little barbarians; he was chilled, he hasn't been out that long and he's twice their size so they were chilled too.

Still, can't avoid the obvious;I need that room to be useable in the future, and 8 gerbils, however cute, are too many. There's one pair of boys I intend to keep and two groups of three I need to find homes for; The girl group has a nutmeg (Opi) an agouti (Petite) and a rather pretty white with black eyes (Perdita). The boy group has two Agoutis (FingerlickinFred and Stripe) and a very cute but very shy black with a white stripe down his bib (Tux). If any chums know of someone who can help, do give me a shout. The main requirement for all is a good loving home .

And now. A bath.