In a message dated 1/13/00 2:06:25 PM Central Standard Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
<< I've never had to deal with gerbil pups before, but I have bred cats and
hung out with Great Dane breeders.>>
Neat! I'd like to breed dogs, except I'd have to wait a while, number one,
and I still haven't figured out exactly how I feel about spay+neuter/breeding
so-called "show quality" purebreds/how or whether that would encourage
docking and/or cropping, and the rest of it, number two. (Bet a lot of you
didn't think 13 year olds thought much about any of that, huh? : 0-), )
<>
I have a rather large dog--a husky/mal/wolf/shepherd--and so many people are
afraid of her when they first see her! The funny thing is, she's about the
laziest dog ever to be seen on the face of the Earth. Any teacup sized toy
poodle would be more vicious than her : 0-),
<<they feel obligated to take care with
placing their puppies and kittens. These are people who charge $500+ for
their cats and $1400+ for their dogs (& those are the "pet quality" that
they sell with spay/neuter contracts.) Just because gerbils are less
expensive doesn't mean they don't deserve to have good homes. >>
I never thought of it that way. I'll bet my mom and dad almost think I'm
crazy for being so careful with who these 5 inch gerbils are given to. It
seems--I don't know, strange? weird? odd? crazy?--to me when I think about it
too, I guess--after all, in Mongolia these guys are just as big of a pest as
(wild) rats and mice are here in many places. (In fact, the other day our
neighbor was saying she and a lot of others on our block, or rather
cul-de-sac were having problems with rats getting into storage shacks and
garages, especially with people who stored birdseed(gee, that doesn't like
anyone HERE, does it, Radar?).) I'll bet they're more comfortable with me
keeping gerbils than they would be if my brother Ben strated keeping roaches
again and then started breeding them, lol(I can just imagine the looks on
some people's faces : 0-), )
<<The cat & dog people sit down and discuss why you want the animal (show,
pet, breed), if you have other animals, if you've had dogs or cats before,
what your situation is so that you can pay for vet care (not really much of
an issue, I guess, with gerbs), and just have a conversation so they know
what kind of person they're dealing with. Most of the good breeders feel
like their animals are their children or grandchildren, and will often
include a clause in their contract saying that if the buyer ever needs to
find another home for the animal, the breeder gets first option to take the
animal back. One woman put it: "Our babies can always come home." >>
That may be another problem. I haven't talked about taking any gerbils back
who need to be taken back yet with my mom(also, we're moving this summer),
but I get the feeling she and dad wouldn't be very happy if someone couldn't
keep a gerbil anymore and returned it to us. It seems like that wouldn't
matter much anyway, since I assume gerbils aren't returned much(especially
with precautions taken to be sure they'd have good owners who could and would
care for them)(right??) and we won't be here in Florida much longer, anyway
and will be moving next summer. I get the feeling not many people would go
all the way to Colorado, or Mongomery Alabama, even(those are our most likely
spots to be assigned to) just to return a gerbil to the person who gave it to
them : 0-),
<<Sometimes you just get a creepy feeling about someone, or just feel like
something is not right... like one time I had some kittens for sale and
this woman came over and kept insisting that I should lower the price to
$100 because that's all she could afford. Now, I've *given* cats to friends
and relatives, but she rubbed me the wrong way, and I felt like if she
couldn't afford to pay for the cat, she probably couldn't afford to pay to
have her neutered and all her shots & everything, either. Something about
her just felt weird, and I just told her no.
It's a really tough decision, but it sounds from your posts like what you
really want is some moral support to Just Say No to these kids.>>
I did take it pretty hard when mom was whispering to me that I had to give
the neighbors some gerbils. I think it was mostly that I honestly was not
expecting anything like that from either of my parents! I don't really know
why now, looking back on it.
<<Sounds like
maybe your Mom can back you up?>>
She is now : 0-), Probably part of it is that she feels guilty...
<<Maybe if you talk to her some more about
your concerns, she can help back you up. I'm sorry but I don't remember how
old you are. Being a young person is difficult, but whatever your age,
having Mom on your side is a big plus. =)
Good luck with your dilema,
Rebecca...
whose Mom is 65 >>
Thanks ever so much for the long, uplifting letter : 0-), Another thanks,
also, to every one of you who gave me advice on this, too--I really, really
appreciate the help!
