Off the Grid
Apr. 16th, 2010 10:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouseSorry for the silence. I was off the grid.
My gerbils have decided to fight. What's funny about this is that when we bought these two, the cashier (and the sales person) both warned us that gerbils can get territorial and "fight to the death." I've owned gerbils on and off for decades. We NEVER had gerbils fight. Ever.
But these two are also our first girls (and first set of siblings). Maybe it's a gender thing. Or a family group thing.
Anyway as part of all this excitment, I discovered that XoXo had actual owies on her rump, and in a panicked run -- ran off at seven thirty in the evening to get a new cage for her. Of course, in such a distressed state, I grabbed the wrong kind. In my defense, the aquarium had a picture of a gerbil on it, so someone thought it would be appropriate for a small rodent. But this person, apparently, did not have four curious, slightly overweight cats who like to sit on the top of said aquarium.
Just about two minutes after we had XoXo resettled, Inky decided he needed to take up his usual perch on the new aquarium. Whump! Like in some LOL/Stupid cat video on YouTube, suddenly he was sitting IN the cage. XoXo was unharmed; and Inky was only mildy confused. But that was the end of that particular house. Luckily, PetCo will take returns of damaged/flawed items.
And we were able to temporarily fix the cage and reinforce it with chicken wire (which involved an equally comic trip to the garage -- the funny part there was that I forgot we no longer had electricity in our garage and ended up having to trapse back to the house to get a flashlight) until I could return in the next morning, (yesterday.)
XoXo is now happily ensconsed in an exact duplicate of her sister's set-up. Weirdly, they both seem calmer. B used to throw herself onto the wire mesh top and hang, Spider-Man-style for a few seconds upside down. (I have some video of it, that I should upload at some point.) Anyway, no more of that now that she's on her own. I say its weird only because all the literature says gerbils can't flourish singlely. But you should have seen B last night. She was totally rearranging the "furnature" quite busily, like she was so happy that b*tch had finally moved out (even though it's clear B was the agressor. She had NO bites on her butt.)
So I spent the morning dealing with returning the old cage and getting the new one (and new water bottle, nesting box, etc.) and then I cleaned the house (which I'd neglected for a few days) and waited for my friend Nick Dykstra to come over and hang out for a chat. Nick and I have been friends since college, where we bonded over the first Highlander movie. So we squandered the afternoon catching up on each others' fandom, as it were. In other words, we mostly talked movies, books, and TV with a bit of personal life thrown in for good measure. The sun came out and we sat on the porch and absorbed some of that extemely popular sunshine vitamin.
And I found out on Wednesday that Josh Whedon is set to direct the new Avengers movie. Thoughts?
My gerbils have decided to fight. What's funny about this is that when we bought these two, the cashier (and the sales person) both warned us that gerbils can get territorial and "fight to the death." I've owned gerbils on and off for decades. We NEVER had gerbils fight. Ever.
But these two are also our first girls (and first set of siblings). Maybe it's a gender thing. Or a family group thing.
Anyway as part of all this excitment, I discovered that XoXo had actual owies on her rump, and in a panicked run -- ran off at seven thirty in the evening to get a new cage for her. Of course, in such a distressed state, I grabbed the wrong kind. In my defense, the aquarium had a picture of a gerbil on it, so someone thought it would be appropriate for a small rodent. But this person, apparently, did not have four curious, slightly overweight cats who like to sit on the top of said aquarium.
Just about two minutes after we had XoXo resettled, Inky decided he needed to take up his usual perch on the new aquarium. Whump! Like in some LOL/Stupid cat video on YouTube, suddenly he was sitting IN the cage. XoXo was unharmed; and Inky was only mildy confused. But that was the end of that particular house. Luckily, PetCo will take returns of damaged/flawed items.
And we were able to temporarily fix the cage and reinforce it with chicken wire (which involved an equally comic trip to the garage -- the funny part there was that I forgot we no longer had electricity in our garage and ended up having to trapse back to the house to get a flashlight) until I could return in the next morning, (yesterday.)
XoXo is now happily ensconsed in an exact duplicate of her sister's set-up. Weirdly, they both seem calmer. B used to throw herself onto the wire mesh top and hang, Spider-Man-style for a few seconds upside down. (I have some video of it, that I should upload at some point.) Anyway, no more of that now that she's on her own. I say its weird only because all the literature says gerbils can't flourish singlely. But you should have seen B last night. She was totally rearranging the "furnature" quite busily, like she was so happy that b*tch had finally moved out (even though it's clear B was the agressor. She had NO bites on her butt.)
So I spent the morning dealing with returning the old cage and getting the new one (and new water bottle, nesting box, etc.) and then I cleaned the house (which I'd neglected for a few days) and waited for my friend Nick Dykstra to come over and hang out for a chat. Nick and I have been friends since college, where we bonded over the first Highlander movie. So we squandered the afternoon catching up on each others' fandom, as it were. In other words, we mostly talked movies, books, and TV with a bit of personal life thrown in for good measure. The sun came out and we sat on the porch and absorbed some of that extemely popular sunshine vitamin.
And I found out on Wednesday that Josh Whedon is set to direct the new Avengers movie. Thoughts?