The Day the Squirrel Went Berserk

I would love for this to be a post about seeing Ray Stevens in town and hearing him perform his hilarious song Mississippi Squirrel Revival. It is a song about a boy who catches a squirrel and sneaks it into church. The squirrel escapes and causes revival to break out when the church members are unaware of what has scurried up their pants. But this post is not about seeing Ray Stevens perform. It isn't even about a squirrel. It is about the day Rachel's classroom pet, Speedy the gerbil, got loose and went berserk in Rachel's room.

If you read this post, you already know that Rachel's class at school has two pet gerbils, Icy and Speedy. Each weekend one lucky student gets to bring the pair home. Rachel has already had one turn. I guess actually two. One of her friends was chosen to bring the gerbils home for the weekend, but her mom asked if Rachel could take over care on Sunday because her friend had to ride the bus to school on Monday and couldn't take the gerbils on the bus. I agreed. After all, the kids loved having the gerbils at our house. On Friday morning, Rachel called from school to ask if she could bring the gerbils home again. Again, I agreed.

I have had reservations each time she has asked to bring the gerbils home because I am terrified that one will get loose and we won't be able to find it. Rachel will forever be remembered as the kid who lost the class pet. Since bringing home the class pet is one of those things I think she will always remember, I always agree.

Friday afternoon I picked Rachel, Aaron, Icy and Speedy up after school. All was well with the world. I reminded her that if they were going to take the gerbils out of their cage she needed to do that in her room with the door closed. The gerbils each have a plastic ball they can run around in. Also in the aforementioned post, I talked about the kids having gerbil races while the gerbils raced across the hardwood floors in their balls. The kids would go to Rachel's room to take the gerbils out of the cage and place them in the balls. When they were ready to go back in their cages, the kids would take them back up to Rachel's room.

Saturday was very rainy and the kids and I settled down in my room to watch a movie. After the movie, I made the kids lunch. Rachel finished first and said she was going to her room to read. I was waiting for Aaron and Hannah to finish when I heard this blood curdling scream coming from upstairs. I don't think I have ever heard such a sound from any of the kids. I don't remember getting from the kitchen to Rachel's room. When I did get to her room she opened the door and was in total meltdown mode. I thought one of the gerbils had died. Apparently she was taking Speedy from the cage to put her in the ball when she jumped out of Rachel's hands and started running all over Rachel's room. I don't know how long Rachel tried to catch Speedy before she went into total meltdown. Rachel collects snowglobes and they are displayed on a table in her room. Speedy ran under that table and in an attempt to catch her, Rachel broke two of her snowglobes. I'm not sure which she was more upset about, the escaped gerbil or the broken snowglobes.

I closed the door and saw the gerbil darting all over the place like someone had spiked her nuts with caffeine. I asked Rachel who was the best at catching the gerbils to get them out of their cage. She said, "Aaron" so while I kept watch, she ran to get Aaron. Then Rachel attempted to chase Speedy in Aaron's direction. It was not funny to watch at the time, but now it is pretty funny. I so wish I had my camera handy. When Aaron would bend down to grab Speedy, she would run in the opposite direction. The pack-n-play (for those of you who don't know, it is a portable crib like a play pen) was still set up in Rachel's room from our company last week. I took out the mattress, removed the sheet and had Rachel chase the gerbil in my direction. The mattress fold in thirds. After several attempts, I managed to trap the gerbil between the wall and the mattress. The way the mattress was situated Rachel and Aaron were unable to reach the gerbil. I was not about to touch it because I am sure it was scared and I was not going to let it bite me. Fend for yourselves, kids! I took one of the plastic balls and scooped it up. Rachel then took her from the ball and returned her to her cage.

Rachel cried for at least 15 minutes after it was all over. The snowglobes that were broken were not her favorites, but I think the whole ordeal was overwhelming. The kids have less than two months of school left, so hopefully Rachel is NOT offered another chance to bring the rats, I mean gerbils home.