The Three Amigos

I’ve never been a pet person in my life. I’ve always wanted to be, but never could seem to get one.  I had a dog as a kid but wasn’t old enough to take care of it and we ended up having to give it away for a number of reasons. After high school I adopted a puppy but unfortunately due to my work schedule and other conditions I was unable to take care of it either so I had to give it away as well.

In spring of 2010 I purchased 3 little gerbils while attending my final semester of college at the encouragement of my then girlfriend.  I figured hey why not, they don’t require a lot of upkeep and it should be easy. Plus at the time she was planning on keeping them in her apartment and taking care of them for the most part.  Well that didn’t really happen and I ended up bringing them back to my place because of their constant all night sckritching and gnawing that was keeping her up. I ended up taking them back home to Arkansas when I graduated anyway.  They were obnoxious and hard to deal with since they’re not like a cat or dog where you can sit and play with them, they don’t come to you, and don’t necessarily like to be held. I know you can train them for that, but I sure didn’t know how.  Yet none the less they started to grow on me over time and I began to care about them in a roundabout way.

When that relationship ended I almost immediately couldn’t look at the little guys since it was a reminder of everything and was too difficult.  Then it sort of shifted to a feeling of this was all I had left from that relationship, to just becoming what it should have been in the first place: my pets and my friends. Leroy, Scribbles, and Scruffaluffagus were only a few weeks old when I bought them and while I originally only intended on buying one, I couldn’t resist all three as to “not split them up”.  Really I just figured it wouldn’t be a problem since they were so small.  They each seemed to develop their own personalities and behaviors.  Leroy was the troublemaker who was constantly escaping and seemed to be scheming on getting away and watching you with contempt from the bars. Scruffaluffagus was the fatty lovable one who didn’t seem to mind being held as long as you would give him seeds. Scribbles was playful and curious, always just getting into things.  There were times when I was annoyed at them chewing and scribbling on the plastic walls of their cage, times they’d escape and would take me hours to find and put them back, but I generally enjoyed having them.

Scruffaluffagus after putting on some serious weight in early 2011 started developing health issues all of a sudden and before I could do much about it passed away early in the morning after a weekend of worry. Leroy followed suit almost a year later when he developed many of the same symptoms.  I took him to the vet before this however but I think it was just too late. The same loss of appetite, inability to run fast, and sleeping all the time. Very lethargic. Scribbles was a surprise as I thought he would be the first to go with his numerous health issues he had already.  In the fall of 2011 he had what appeared to be a stroke or inner ear infection, but after a vet visit and some medication he stopped being all wobbly and seemed ok, even if he still had the vague head tilt.  Then sometime last year he didn’t seem to want to eat much and slowed down a bit. Another vet visit showed that he had some sort of bowel infection and hadn’t chewed down his teeth enough to be able to eat. A quick snip of the incisors and some medication and he was good as new in a few days. 

After Leroy went he seemed to be looking for something for a few days afterwards and started to sleep a lot more. I  read online that as social as gerbils are, that when the last one is alone the tend to not live as long and lose the will to live. I decided to just spoil him and help enjoy whatever life he had left. I bought a more expensive food, got more chew toys, and all that jazz. He seemed fine for months and months, just slept a lot more.  About a month ago I noticed he was doing a lot of scratching and it wasn’t until I picked him up that I noticed a large seedy growth on his belly. A vet visit confirmed this to be a scent gland tumor and that not a lot could be done about it.  The most likely result would be death even if surgery was successful. After deciding to keep him alive until his quality of life started to decline and some medication he seemed just fine.  Each week I would be dreading the day when he would go, but Scribbles just kept on surprising me.  Well that was about a month or so ago and it wasn’t until a few days back that I noticed that he really started to slow down.  He would sleep much more and started to eat less. Not to mention didn’t open his eyes all the way, then only one eye, and that one eye only halfway. As of last night he wouldn’t even go to the top of the cage, just sit on the bottom and occasionally go up for water so I made the hard decision of putting him down this afternoon via co2 gas.  It’s not fun, but at least now he isn’t so blind or itchy or covered in tumors anymore.

To me it’s really hard to understand how I could get so attached to three little rodents as much as I have.  I’ve missed each one dearly as they’ve gone and now that they all are I’ll miss all of them.  I’d like to believe that they’re running around together again somewhere, but what do I know.  It’s just a nice thought anyway.  So play on three amigos. I miss you guys and thanks for all the help and honestly comfort you’ve given me over the last three years when I felt not so alone with you in the room with me.