Meet Darth Vader (black gerbil) and Luke (brown gerbil). Can you tell I live with a 3 year old Star Wars fan?
Today was cold and snowy again and we've spent a lot of time indoors. It's too cold to even have Clark go out and do goat and chicken chores with me so no animal time. Well, there's Jack the cat but if you know cats you know how hit or miss that can be. I just wanted to see something warm and fuzzy. So asked Clark and Grant if they wanted to go to the local pet store. They readily agreed and ran to get coats.
This wasn't an impulse buy. I had been giving thoughts to having a couple hamsters again. I figured the boys would enjoy watching rodent antics. We've never raised gerbils before but they were a lot cuter than the hamsters the store had available. Plus, they are more active during the day than hamsters. My husband is very lucky I decided the cats wouldn't handle guinea pigs well - boy were they CUTE!
I think this was a good decision/addition for our family. The boys LOVED watching gerbils all day. They checked the water about 100 times to make sure it was still full! Let's hope the desire to do pet chores continues! Clark is already planning a mega-pipe play space for the new gerbils. Really - he has told me about the pipes he wants to buy to expand the play area (if you know my son at all you know that pipes have intrigued him since he was 18 months old).
Luckily we bought a cat proof cage! While working during nap time I kept getting distracted watching Jack trying to figure out how to get those little guys.
Then Purple, our indoor/outdoor cat (mostly outdoor except when it is super cold or super hot) heard the gerbils playing. He actually made me pause more than Jack did. You see, Jack thinks he's a hunter but he's really just a lazy house cat. Whereas, Purple is a hunter. This is a cat who has taken on the bobcat that prowls our property. One time we watched him take out a nest of baby bunnies and swallow them whole. He's an amazing hunter which is why he spends most of his time prowling our barns. This cat looked at our little gerbils like I had laid out a buffet of appetizers. Luckily the cage proved it's worth.
All in all today, I'm not sure what I enjoyed more, watching the joy of the boys or the prowling of the cats. Both were great fun!
1 comment:
Awe, how cute! We ended up with Hamsters this year...two...one for each kid! The are adorable...but are nocturnal so it's not a great thing. =) My kids love them....they do stink a bit though. =)
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