Yikes!

So, another story to add to the mouse tale (or should I say tail...ha!), except this time it involves our gerbils. No mice. One gerbil to be exact. Oreo is the name. She is so named, because she was white when we got her. Now she is black and white. I don't know why, she just is.

As we were all coming down the stairs Tuesday morning, Mary commented that she saw a mouse in the piano room. I looked at Ben and Ben looked at me. Weird! We have never seen one in there. Mary said it was a big one. Oh man.

A while later, we are all sitting at the table eating a yummy Birthday breakfast for Ben. We were celebrating his Birthday and enjoying being together before the chaos of the day began. I was teaching preschool that morning and we were pulling together our costumes for the Ward Halloween Party.

It was all well worth the effort I must say. (see previous post for pictures) I still fall into a fit if laughter every time I look at that post, especially when looking at Ben. Oh, it was way too much fun! And yes, it was totally fine. The bishop, activities committee (of which I am a part of), and everyone else loved it and were just fine with it...as we knew they would be. We were cartoon characters. Cute, charming, dark, Spanish speaking, Dora and Diego. No harm in that. I am just glad Dora isn't really 6 ft 1in, muscular ;) , with a booming low voice and a 5:00 shadow. hahaha Oh, it was great! We did our best. Seriously, I am chuckling right now. I am glad I have a husband who makes me laugh my guts out and who goes along with my love of holidays.

We would do it again for Halloween, but it was a lot of work and a lot of make-up to get off. We will just let the kids have the dress up fun tomorrow night. They look adorable anyway. Ben and I will be good adults and do our duties as treat hand-out-ers and trick-or-treater supervisors. In the end, we will also be cashiers as our kids trade their candy for a fun toy. We are going to a fun party though (thanks to Adri), and we are excited to be with friends on a fun, spooky Halloween night. Party it up baby! There is always next year for costumes though, and we already have some ideas that make me laugh right out loud! ;)

O.K. back to the story. Holidays always get me side-tracked. Where was I, oh yes, the Birthday breakfast.

So, the dog was in the house, because it is FREEZING outside, and he doesn't have a dog house yet. I was just thinking about how the food wasn't tasting that great to me (pregnancy taste buds) when I looked over at the dog.

The very second I looked over at him, he lunged as quick as a flash and scooped up something HUGE in his mouth. I thought it was a giant rat. All I could see were four legs dangling out of his teeth. I immediately put my shirt up to my mouth and tried to keep myself from puking. I jumped from my chair, and my arm was flapping, for no real reason other than weird reaction.

Ben quickly opened the back door and let the dog run outside with its prey. I was still working on the gag reflex suppression, while Ben was commenting on how HUGE the mouse was and wondering where it came from. Mary's eyes were as big as saucers and she wasn't blinking, and Sam kept on saying, "that was a big one dad!"

Suddenly, I had a thought. I glanced over at the gerbil cage in horror and began counting...1 gerbil...2 gerbil..."um, guys, where is our other gerbil? I know we have three in there."

Mary began to cry, and I looked outside. The dog had his face in the snow, and the gerbil was running for its life. It was, in deed, a gerbil. I turned away right as the dog got it again. I yelled for Ben and told him it was a gerbil and for the moment, it was still alive.

Ben ran out into the snow in his bare feet and got the dog to drop the gerbil. The dog kept right by it though and continued to try to snatch it again. Poor Ben was dancing out there in the snow with shorts and bare feet, trying to keep the dog away and trying to catch a horrified gerbil speeding through the snow.

I called the dog and put him in the garage, and then got Ben a container to put the gerbil in so it wouldn't bite him out of fear. Mary was still crying and Sam had his face plastered to the window. I still had my shirt in my mouth in effort not to barf all over Ben's birthday breakfast.

Ben ran the gerbil inside and put it back in the cage. It was soaking wet and shaking all over. I couldn't tell if it was hurt or not.

Breakfast was over for me. I couldn't even take one more bite. Mary was working on ending the tears and worrying about the wet, cold, shaking gerbil. Sam was way too excited, and Ben just began eating again. He was the hero of the day! Hooray for Ben!

Three days later, the gerbil seems totally fine. Miracle I tell ya! It is back to it's dry, poofy, energized self. Every once in a while,the dog sits by the gerbil cage and stares at the gerbils. I am sure he is breathing threats to the poor things through the glass. As Ben says, the poor gerbil probably screams every time it sees him looking into the cage.

We don't know how Oreo escaped out of the cage, or how our dog happened to see it run across the floor, but we now have the cage covered and every time I walk by, I count the gerbils.


Oh, and by the way. After killing 18 mice in our house, it has been three days since I have seen a mouse in the house. Our house suddenly feels very clean. There may be an end in sight....just in time for grandma JoJo to visit!