Baby's Adventure!!

I have recently lost my oldest female, Jewel whom I had recently paired up with
a new baby girl (a 6-wk Siamese). Since the little girl, "Baby", was all alone
now I went back to the pet store & got a baby (a black also about 6 weeks).
During their introduction I felt things weren't going well last nite as there
was too much peeping coming from the newer & slightly smaller little black (she
has no name yet). Baby found somebody she could bully I guess. Since I couldn't
sleep I made a poor divider & there was a small space at the top of the cage on
Baby's side. Needless to say, she must have tried to get over to the "other
side" & in the process got up, over & out of the cage & fell to the floor during
the nite.

This morning I got up to go to work & during my regular "head count", discovered
that Baby was GONE!!!! I checked to see if she was in on the "other side" with
little black girl & she was nowhere to be found. My Mom is very afraid of
rodents in general. She now loves gerbils & is doing great but still is a little
afraid. I needed to leave for work & I told my Mom she was gone from her cage &
to call me or Email me at work if she spotted her & if she did that I would tell
her what to do.

It was a very hard day to be a work I was so worried. I wanted to stay & find
Baby. I rushed home from work & my Mom & Dad were standing in the kitchen with
silly grins on their faces. I said "Did you see the little gerbil anywhere yet?"
& my Dad said "look right there on the kitchen counter. We found her about 10
minutes ago." Mom had vacuumed her up!

There was their large plastic critter keeper with a towel over the top. I lifted
the towel off & in there was Baby sitting next to a cut up vacuum cleaner bag!
Apparently my Mom had spilled something & had to get the vacuum. & apparently
Baby had been hunkered down sleeping inside of the vacuum hose for ????... an
unknown amount of time. My Mom pulled the vacuum out & turned it on & heard a
big whoosh!!!!!!!!! She turned the vacuum off & freaked out - she said the
thought occurred to her that she sucked up a gerbil?????? How could that be????
& if she did what should she do? It was probably all bloody &/or dead she
thought. My Dad was sitting there & he told her to bring the vacuum over. He
pulled the bag out & felt something moving. He is still afraid of gerbils but
sat the bag inside of the critter keeper & got some scissors & very very
carefully started cutting a hole in the bag.

He said after a few careful cuts in the bag --- a little nose popped out!!!!! He
pulled the bag open some more & the rest of Baby popped out!! They said she
spent some time cleaning but otherwise they thought she was okay. Sure enough,
she is fine. Not a scratch on her. I put her back in her cage after examining
her thoroughly & she was thirsty & hungry, went right to her wheel & into
play-time.

My parents are amazed how she made it alive after being sucked up all the way
thru the vacuum hoses & thru the little rubber hole that goes into the vacuum
bag. I am too. Good thing in her case to be small, as I think that one of my
bigger adult gerbils would have had a tougher time getting sucked thru the hole
& they might not have made it. I don't know whether she went in head-first or
bottom-first??? I don't know how long she was in there & what she must have been
thinking when she got whooshed up & into the dark bag with all the dirt, coffee
grounds, dust & other yucky stuff. Lucky for her Grandpa was there to rescue
her. He said, at one point my Mom turned the vacuum back on after she heard the
first "whoosh" & my Dad yelled at her to "turn it off & keep it off!!!!!" ......
I am thinking of re-naming Baby something else - like "Trouble"?????


Shelley
Wilderness Gerbils
Arizona