Why do we have a gerbil?

I am tired today. I didn't sleep well last night. Many nights I don't sleep well because I am an extremely light sleeper. I think it must be the mom thing. I can hear the twins ever so quietly open their door in the middle of the night to come sneak into bed with us. I can hear Madison getting a drink of water. I can hear the cat purring in the living room. And I can hear the gerbil scratching at its cage trying to escape.

Now the gerbil was one of Marshall's birthday presents this past October when he turned 5. We got it because, well, I'm not sure why. He did the typical kid thing and was REALLY excited for about 3 weeks about it. Now it's like he doesn't know the thing exists. It had been in the living room, but the cat kept trying to attack it and actually did one time and we thought the thing was going to die...bloody eye and all. (But that's the subject of another blog.) We moved it into the boys room and shortly thereafter Cooper started waking up each night between 11 and midnight, which in turn would wake Marshall up and us and sometimes everyone. We had to find a solution to this problem.

We, well John really, realized that the gerbil was waking up Cooper. Did you know that they are nocturnal animals? You do now. And so do I...stupid things.

The gerbil now resides in the bathroom during the night so as not to wake up the Coop. It seems to be working, except now it keeps me awake...which is better I suppose than keeping Cooper awake.

Anyway, last night I kept hearing Pavarotti, the cat, scratching at the bathroom door. I was about to kill him. Finally I heard what sounded like scurrying across the floor and thought, no, it's not possible. How could that gerbil escape? Well, he had gotten out of his cage somehow...probably one of the twins had left one of the little caps off of the cage, they are STILL obsessed with it!

So at 2:45 a.m. I am on all fours in the bathroom trying to catch this small, white, bleeping animal. Did you know that gerbils are quite quick and they jump? Well, they do. I'm trying not to scream so as not to wake any of the children or John, I'm thoughtful like that, and the thought crosses my mind...should I just let Pavarotti get the thing and be done with it? Marshall would not care (when we thought he was going to die before he started jumping up and down and celebrating that he could get another gerbil...weird kid.). But after 15 grueling minutes I caught and recaged the varmit. Why do we even have a gerbil?