My first experience with gerbils was when my youngest daughter insisted I
come to see Mario and Luigi, the classroom pets for her 5th grade class.
Before that, all I "knew" was that gerbils were similar to hamsters, but had
long furry tails instead of short ones. When summer vacation came around, her
teacher asked if someone could take the gerbils for the summer, and my
daughter volunteered us. They were only supposed to be "foster gerbils". The
next autumn, when she went back to school, my daughter learned that the
teacher had moved to another school and wouldn't be back. We were stuck with
the gerbils! Of course, by then we had been "captured by their gerbily
charms", and were only too happy to "adopt" them.
Bye for now,
Mo
