Rosie and John

A couple of months ago Ava's hamster, Flower, went to hamster heaven. It was a very sad day for Ms. Ava. It turns out, hamsters don't have a very long life span and if you get them when they are older from the pet store, that life span seems even shorter. So we decided we would wait a while before we replaced Flower. I did some research and found out that gerbils are supposed to live a little longer than hamsters and are more personable. This seemed good to me! So on Saturday we took Ava and Ryan to Petco and we got two new gerbils. Ava's birthday is this Friday. Since I have to work in the evening at our school's Open House, we decided to celebrate a little early. One of the things I found in my research was that gerbils are social and do better in at least pairs, so we got two. One of them is Ava's and the other is Ryan's.

I love the personalities of my children and how their personalities show up even in their choice of pet. The gerbil that Ava picked out is sleek and looks really neat and tidy, like Ava. The gerbil that Ryan picked out is kind of messy looking and spunky, like Ryan. In the picture Ava's is the one on the left and Ryan's is on the right. I apologize for the picture, it is really hard to take a picture of gerbils. This was the best of several attempts. :) Their personalities also showed in the names they picked out. Ava named her gerbil Rosie Buttercup. Ryan chose the name John. Even though they are both girls. John. The kid cracks me up!

 

One of the other things I have noticed about gerbils is they are not actually cleaner than hamsters. The picture of their cage below is after those two things worked and worked to rearrange their cage and bedding. Not sure how this is more functional, but they seem happy. 

 

So we will see how this new adventure goes with gerbils. So far the kids are in love and they ran right up stairs today when we got home from school to see Rosie and John.  Today was the first day I let them get them out. So we put a towel down in the bathtub and the kids sat down and we let Rosie and John run around and "explore" and become more familiar with Ava and Ryan. Jewel even tried to get in on the fun but we weren't sure if she was hungry for a little snack or not, so we kicked her out :).