Welcome, Sandy!

Sandy checks out her new cage.

This is as close as Sophie will get to Sandy before screaming and pulling away. Let's hope she stays a little afraid for Sandy's sake.

So I ran out of reasons to take rocks out of the gerbil jar, and the boys finally earned their pet. Meet our new gerbil, "Sandy". She has been constant entertainment since her arrival. We chose a gerbil because they apparently bite and pee less than hamsters and are less nocturnal, thus more entertaining during the day. We have resisted getting a pet of any kind since Frannie, our Cocker Spaniel died three years ago. I just have had enough dependents to care for, but I have to say that I underestimated the value of a pet for the kids. Dylan said tonight, "Finally..we have a pet." -as if he had endured terrible abuse until now. He, of all the kids, has a soft spot for animals. We got a white female gerbil and Cheryl has a black male gerbil. It is tempting to mate them just to see what the babies look like. We probably won't do that since I learned from my childhood gerbils how you can go from two to twenty in the blink of an eye. One other observation: those exercise wheels are much quieter than they were when I was a kid.