three summers ago my 2 oldest boys went to spend a week with my dad.
at the end of the week they came home with 2 gerbils, ralph and rickashay.
i've been told the life expectancy for gerbils is 1.5 - 2 years.
ralph lived a long eventful life.
(rickashay is still kickin')
ralph and rickashay have been swimming in the tub and in the lake.
they've been given baths with shampoo.
poor rickashay lost half of his tail that first summer. it hasn't slowed him down yet.
once their cage was left open and they escaped to the dirty clothes closet-
that was of course full of dirty clothes.
they chewed holes in all those clothes.
that was lots of clothes to replace.
they took a trip to school once.
their cage broke on the playground.
kids were running wild trying to catch the little creatures.
on the way home they were running wild in the van.
husband woke up one morning, put his feet on the ground and felt something run over his feet.
when husband turned the lamp on, rickashay was just staring up at him.
the gerbils had gotten out of their cage that night.
rickashay had tumbled down the stairs and made it into our bedroom.
and i will never forget when connor came running downstairs to tell me about ralph being able to fly.
the boys' beds were bunked at the time and connor was playing on the top bunk with ralph.
connor placed ralph on the top of the ceiling fan and turned the fan on.
yep, that gerbil did fly.
but they flew other times too.
the boys tied sacks to them and threw them over the stairs.
the boys said the gerbils were parachuting.
last night we buried ralph.
r.i.p. ralph.
you were a good little gerbil.
