Star-crossed lovers

Oh man...the song playing is just too perfect. hehehe


So, since the last post about our gerbil Oreo, the following has taken place.

We monitored her very closely for a day or two, to make sure she was o.k. and would live, after being in a dogs mouth and being rolled around in the snow. She did just dandy.

Three days later, I walked downstairs and found her standing in the middle of the rug looking at me. She was taunting me...just daring me to try to get her. I spent the next 20 minutes catching her and getting her back in the cage. I covered the cage with pillows.

One day later...we were sitting on the couch and we heard a bang. Oreo somehow got through the pillows and was out of the cage again. She was making a run for it. Ben caught her with his amazing lizard catching reflexes (learned from childhood) in about 2 seconds. We put her back in the cage. We covered it with the sled from the garage this time.

We then discussed why she could possibly want out after the trauma that happened to her. We came to one conclusion....love, true, passionate, undying, everlasting love. It is the only thing that would drive something to be so crazy and so daring. She was in love, and the only thing she could possibly be in love with would have to be Eddy. The last standing mouse. The one and only, guts of steel, sly, clever, and oh so sneaky Eddy. Dang Eddy.

The only thing is...we hadn't seen any mice in our house for a few days, and we we hoping that we had finally ended our problem (after killing 25+ mice before we stopped counting).

Nope...the "scratch, scratch, munch, munch," has started up again. Eddie has returned.

Grandma JoJo arrived on Tuesday. Wednesday morning she announced (laughing and in good humor) that she had a visitor in the night. A nice little mouse that came upstairs, got in her suitcase, went past her clothes, ate through a plastic bag, and proceeded to munch on her herbal drink packets. AAARRRGGG! Yeah, I felt like a real winner. That was our fist experience with a mouse being upstairs. Poor JoJo. Dang Eddy.

After a million apologies and a million "it is o.k., no harm done" replies, we set out the mouse traps that night.

The trap went off, the food was gone from it, no mouse. Dang Eddy.

The next night, we arrived home after dinner to find Oreo standing in the middle of the rug staring at us. I am sure this time she was cursing us and everything we stand for. Ben wasn't there to help us with his amazing skills, so it was up to me, Sam, Mary and JoJo (who doesn't enjoy to touch gerbils, and I don't blame her). We cornered, baited, chased, poked with a broom, moved furniture, and every other thing you can imagine, but nothing worked. Finally, JoJo grabbed a magazine and the next time Oreo went running across the room, she scooped her up in the magazine. JoJo then panicked and with a shriek, flipped the magazine. Oreo flew up into the air, and somehow zoomed far enough to make an arch and land right in the cage. It was quite the flight. We about died laughing.

The sled didn't work, so we then covered the cage with a towel. Two seconds later, the towel was down and had 3 holes chewed through it. rats! (no pun intended)

Last night, we heard Eddie munching his way through whatever, and he was squeaking like crazy. He was sending his love song out to Oreo, his one and only. He was letting her know that the house was almost done and the food storage was going well...really well. What do you know, about an hour later, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Oreo in a mad dash running from the room! She was going to be with Eddie if it was the last thing she could do. I could see the red gleam in her eyes.

We eventually caught her again, after a valiant fight, and put her back in the cage. I can only imagine what must have been coming out of her mouth. We then watched as over and over again, she jumped and scratched, trying to get out. The other two plump gerbils just sit there and watch her, like two little old ladies sitting on the porch drinking lemonade and gossiping about everything non-important in the world. They look at her like she is crazy. And she is...crazy in love. We put a bigger towel over the cage this time and it is out of reach.

We also caught two mice with one trap last night. Both were too small to be Eddie, but small enough to know that there is some pro-creation going on behind our walls. Eddie will not surrender. He will make up for what we have taken from him, and he is doing it very quickly.

And so the story continues. Oreo and Eddie will forever be trying to be together. Eddie will continue to get food, make his home for he and Oreo and re-create his colony. Oreo will continue to run in her wheel ALL night to get fast enough and strong enough to reach him. And one fine day (or most likely night), they will re-unite, and the world will see, for the first time in history, a mouse-gerbil baby...or 20 of them. Will they be called a mouerble, or a gerouse, only time will tell. But, one thing is certain, that will be the day we will declare our surrender and bomb the house.
Dang Eddie.