Well, I guess you could say I am a rodent lover. I have always enjoyed keeping rodents as pets. I guess it is linked to the preschool teacher gene. I have had dwarf hamsters, teddy bear hamsters, gerbils, and I even raised guinea pigs. That was really fun, we had at least three litters and those little guinea pig babies are sooooo cute, they come out all hairy and ready for the world, not like their mice cousins who come out all bald and tentative.
My latest rodents that I was keeping were called degus ( or as my partner teacher affectionately calls them - italian rats). They looked like a cross between a rat and gerbil. They had to come in pairs, because otherwise they get lonely.
Well I have a problem, because now there is only one left.
I know there were two degus in the cage on Thursday morning when I fed them. Both Fred and Barney were happy to get those yummy carrots and both looked healthy as well. Well when I checked them again on Saturday, only Barney was in the cage and he was whimpering. (really he was, they make these like whistling sounds). I called my youngest son out to help me figure out where Fred went and we were faced with a mystery. Fred's body was nowhere to be seen. Upon further investigation, we found unmistable signs of foul play, (ie fur and teeth-yikes!) We still don't know what happened to little Fred, but the possibilities are many. It was a sad day in the preschool-teacher-rodent-loving world.
3 comments:
A mystery... I wonder what happened.
This week we are rat sitting. They really stink so we left them on the front veranda. Those rats are not allowed in my house.
We tried to keep a few hamsters as pets for my 10 year old, but they kept dying of rotten tail, or something like that. I don't remember this problem in my day. I had a guinea pig and hamsters, and they lived the good life! Oh well, sorry to hear that Fred suffered an early demise. Rats can be peculiar some times.
Oh NO!!! Tramatizing?
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