Post by pepandmax on Jan 5, 2006 20:30:36 GMT -8
I posted this at another forum, but I like this forum better 
so I would like to share it with you, as well. It's a story I'll tell my grandkids, when they get their first gerbils...
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Once upon a time, my boyfriend had had one particular day off from work to go to one particular site to do a community service project with his company. It was at a middle school on a very hot summer day--his company was helping support a Habitat for Humanity team.
Well, on this particular morning, Greg arrived at the site and met his co-workers near a little garden out front of the school. At some point, he noticed that a group of people were tossing bits of bagel at the curb, laughing and smiling at a "tame mouse." She was a very skinny little rodent with somewhat dingy, bluish grey, matted fur.
Since Greg has experience with gerbils (I am the gerbil Mom in the house), he knew that it was not a tame mouse.
It was a gerbil, outside in a garden.
He bent over and offered the little critter his sleeve. Quick as a whistle, she ran right up his arm.
She was cute, but no one knew what she was doing outside, there was no where to put her, and it was time to get to work. Greg very reluctantly let her go into the bushes.
At the end of the day, Greg called me and told me that he had seen a gerbil outside, and asked if he should look for her. After getting over my shock, I told him that YES he should look for her, that he should find a box or a paper bag or something and try to catch her, because a gerbil fending for itself outside doesn't have long to live.
He got a stale bagel, broke off little pieces, and scattered them over the curb. He grabbed a stick, and sort of poked around in the bushes. He turned around...
...and there was the little grey gerbil, stuffing her cheeks with bagel bits.
He scooped her up and brought her home.
At first Greg said that we couldn't keep her, even though we didn't know what to do with her. It was summer and the school was locked up, so it was unlikely that she was living in the school by herself all summer. We thought that if she came from a nearby home, she probably wasn't being cared for properly.
In the end, I convinced him that it would be difficult if not impossible to track down her owners, and that we would care for her just as well, and probably better, than her previous owners.
We put her in a little cardboard box with litter, a bowl of food, water, and plenty of white tissues. For the first three or four days, all she did was eat A LOT, drink A LOT, and sleep. I didn't know something that tiny could put away that much food. She was eating as much as two adult males.
We named her Lilac Serendipity Rose. Lilac, because she's a lilac gerbil found near a lilac bush; Rose, because both of our grandmothers were named Rose (and Greg's grandmother passed away recently).
Her middle name is Serendipity because this one particular company had this one particular employee who, on one particular day, went to one particular site, saw a gerbil, left for six hours, and was able to find her again.
If that's not fate, then I don't know what fate is.
Here's Lil:
...when we first got her:
The poor little thing looked so sad and pathetic... and dirty.
...once she was feeling "herself" again (i.e. very wild, skittish, hyper):
...playing gymnast gerbil (begging to be let out to run in the ball):
THE END.
so I would like to share it with you, as well. It's a story I'll tell my grandkids, when they get their first gerbils...------------------------------------------------------------
Once upon a time, my boyfriend had had one particular day off from work to go to one particular site to do a community service project with his company. It was at a middle school on a very hot summer day--his company was helping support a Habitat for Humanity team.
Well, on this particular morning, Greg arrived at the site and met his co-workers near a little garden out front of the school. At some point, he noticed that a group of people were tossing bits of bagel at the curb, laughing and smiling at a "tame mouse." She was a very skinny little rodent with somewhat dingy, bluish grey, matted fur.
Since Greg has experience with gerbils (I am the gerbil Mom in the house), he knew that it was not a tame mouse.
It was a gerbil, outside in a garden.
He bent over and offered the little critter his sleeve. Quick as a whistle, she ran right up his arm.
She was cute, but no one knew what she was doing outside, there was no where to put her, and it was time to get to work. Greg very reluctantly let her go into the bushes.
At the end of the day, Greg called me and told me that he had seen a gerbil outside, and asked if he should look for her. After getting over my shock, I told him that YES he should look for her, that he should find a box or a paper bag or something and try to catch her, because a gerbil fending for itself outside doesn't have long to live.
He got a stale bagel, broke off little pieces, and scattered them over the curb. He grabbed a stick, and sort of poked around in the bushes. He turned around...
...and there was the little grey gerbil, stuffing her cheeks with bagel bits.
He scooped her up and brought her home.
At first Greg said that we couldn't keep her, even though we didn't know what to do with her. It was summer and the school was locked up, so it was unlikely that she was living in the school by herself all summer. We thought that if she came from a nearby home, she probably wasn't being cared for properly.
In the end, I convinced him that it would be difficult if not impossible to track down her owners, and that we would care for her just as well, and probably better, than her previous owners.
We put her in a little cardboard box with litter, a bowl of food, water, and plenty of white tissues. For the first three or four days, all she did was eat A LOT, drink A LOT, and sleep. I didn't know something that tiny could put away that much food. She was eating as much as two adult males.
We named her Lilac Serendipity Rose. Lilac, because she's a lilac gerbil found near a lilac bush; Rose, because both of our grandmothers were named Rose (and Greg's grandmother passed away recently).
Her middle name is Serendipity because this one particular company had this one particular employee who, on one particular day, went to one particular site, saw a gerbil, left for six hours, and was able to find her again.
If that's not fate, then I don't know what fate is.
Here's Lil:
...when we first got her:
The poor little thing looked so sad and pathetic... and dirty.
...once she was feeling "herself" again (i.e. very wild, skittish, hyper):
...playing gymnast gerbil (begging to be let out to run in the ball):
THE END.
