'Twas the night before Christmas

[bugshaw]

And there are no more stirring rodents chez bugshaw. I made the mistake of looking up how old Carrie live_gerbil was, and the answer was "really quite". As soon as she heard this she took ill, and stopped eating and drinking, and as she finds being handled very traumatic (she often has fits) we were not able to take any heroic measures. After a couple of days in which she failed to drop off peacefully, the vet put her to sleep this afternoon.

So I'm a bit sad.

We've not had no rodents since 1999.

Comments

[fjm.livejournal.com]

Hugs. Lots and lots of hugs.

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the robot hamster book; hamster bits quite sweet, bogey bits quite gross! I don't need to keep it so I'll bring it along to Worldcon for you.

Rodentless? Oh no!

[thalinoviel.livejournal.com]

If you want more rodents, may I recommend asking smokingboot for some of her exponentially growing gerbil population? I'm sure she'll thank you.

Re: Rodentless? Oh no!

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

We know the feeling. Carrie was part of our exponentially expanding gerbil population...

MC

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

Very sad to hear this. I know how a sick pet makes you feel.

[ang-grrr.livejournal.com]

Oh dear.

[inulro.livejournal.com]

Aw, I'm sorry. :-(

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry.

[frandowdsofa.livejournal.com]

sorry

[hawkida.livejournal.com]

Aw, sorry. Bye, Carrie.

Do you think you'll get more rodents?

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

I'd like to. I do feel happier when I have a hamster down my cleavage ;-)

I expect we'll take a break for a while, maybe take the opportunity to decorate the house without giant tanks in the way, then maybe something will move in...

[madcatwoman.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry to har this. Little rodent lives are so brief but the loss of them hurts so much.

[pickledginger.livejournal.com]

Adieu.

My condolences on your loss.

I still have fond memories of my "Witty" and "Twitty," their frequent escapes, and the many family arguments about which of them was which.

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

Very sorry to hear this. It's now 18 months since Sick Kitty died, and I'm still constantly worrying about the Flooger, who is 'really quite old' too. I don't know if we will ever be able to face having new kitties :-(

[hnpcc]

I'm sorry to hear that. It's always hard when pets die, even when it's natural. Well, mostly, you know what I mean.

How long do gerbils live, out of curiosity? We don't have them here and I've only seen them once (in the US) so I've no idea.

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

They live 2-4 years. Carrie was never that robust, so 2years 4months was quite good going.

Our first two gerbils went the whole range: Stan went he was 2, but Cartman carried on till he was 4, apparently going of a heart attack while digging furiously in his favourite jam jar. But he was a bruiser of a gerbil.

I'm more used to gerbils that take ill and die all in one day; this dragging it on and on and on is what I find hard to deal with. It's terrible to leave them like that, but terrible to decide to have them put to sleep :-(