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.

Gerbils and Jammies

This weekend Rachel was chosen to bring home the class pets, two gerbils named Icy and Speedy. I was very worried that one of the kids would drop one and it would run away to never be seen again. That is until it found the stuff the exterminator sprays every three months to keep us bug free. Then we would have to go to the pet store to try to find an identical one so Rachel wouldn't be known as the kid who killed the class pet. I'm not sure if the spray would really kill something as large as a gerbil, but I really didn't want to find out the hard way.

I grew up with pets. We always had a dog. There was the time my brother adopted the stray cat. He was named Tiger and then we realized he was a she when he had kittens on the back step. I remember catching a turtle that we kept in an old cooler. There was at least one hamster and a pair of guinea pigs. We had at least one parakeet.. As the family folklore goes, the parakeet would bite and I encouraged my cousin Mike to stick his finger in the cage. Luckily, my mom overheard.

P.K. didn't grow up with pets so he isn't crazy about having one. I don't mind them, but I don't want them on me. P.K. and I had a parakeet when we were first married. The kids had fish for a while we were living in California, but I couldn't keep them alive. They also had hermit crabs, but we didn't want to try to move them cross country so we gave them away. The kids are constantly begging for a pet. I think Hannah almost has her daddy talked into one. Aaron has a list of the types of snakes he wants to buy. The landlord does not allow pets in the house so we can't have one for now. We bent the rule just for the weekend.

It turned out just fine. Rachel was very responsible and cleaned up after the gerbils who loved to throw their purple shredded bedding out of the cage.

Meet Speedy

and Icy.

Each of the gerbils had a ball to run in. They could really get them going on the hardwood floor. The kids had gerbil races.

Where do the Jammies come in? Hannah had "Wear Your Pajamas to School Day" yesterday. She asked why I have to take a picture when she has a special day at school. I wanted to say, "Because I carried you for nine months, had morning sickness for almost 4 months and was cut in half to bring you into this world and I will take your picture whenever I please. " But I went with, "Because it is fun and I want to have a picture."


I should also mention that P.K. made it home on Friday night. It was a long three weeks. He was able to come home Halloween weekend, but it still seemed like a very long time. He is not allowed to go out of town again until I have at least one friend here.