And His Name is... #MFRWAuthor #BlogHop

Hello, all!

Welcome back for another installment of the MFRW Author Blog 52-Week Challenge.

This is week 43, and today's topic is: Meet My Pets

Oddly enough, until just six weeks ago, I didn't own a pet so wouldn't have been able to participate this week 😢

I mean 😊

I own a pet now!

My son's girl moved across-state with two pets and left one with me and the other with his other grandma.

When she finally moved into her own apartment, she took the kitty with her and left the other guy with me.

She named him Harold, but for the first week he became mine, I had assumed it was a hamster and called him Hamtaro (Google it).

Then my daughter (condescendingly) explained that hamster's don't have tails.

So... he's a gerbil, folks.

Harold just doesn't go with Gerbil OR the little critter's face as far as I can tell.

I don't know what to call him!

He's a chubby little dude who always looks half-asleep, even when he's rolling around in his plastic ball -- banging into walls, doors, and anything else he aims directly for in his back-forth routine.

Sometimes, I forget that he's not a guinea pig, because every time I feed him, he proceeds to burrow that corner of his cage.

I can only assume he is thinking that he's hiding said food beneath the pine bedding when he's ACTUALLY shoving the bedding (and some of his food) right out of the cage and onto my bedroom floor.

He's a nutsy-kookoo, but I've quickly grown to love the little boy.

Even if he is a bit of a pig with no manners who also waits until two in the a.m. to hop on his little spinny-wheel thing and jar me out of my 'finally fell asleep' as it knocks against the plastic part of his cage....

over, and over, and over, and over again.

When I know I have to get up for work in the morning, I'll carry him, cage and all, to the living room and set him down on another end table there.

He doesn't mind, really, since a majority of his time after dark is spent wheeling, shoveling, and gnawing on the rectangular green stick he's also buried somewhere in there.

He isn't too keen on being lifted out of his cage, but he also isn't the sharpest gerbil in the land, either, because there are only two times I remove him from his home -- to clean his home or to let him roll around in his plastic ball.

When he sees the ball, he gets very excited and even squeaks as he hops in place, runs wildly around the cage, and then sniffs my hand for a few seconds before repeating the process.

I set my hand inside the cage, fingers bent toward my palm, and he'll run onto them, letting his whiskers tickle me and make me smile.

Just as I start to lift the elevator car, though, he scampers away like a dork.

So, I ask him, "Do you want to run around and get your exercise or not?"

And he always grabs hold of the cage bars, nodding incessantly while sniffing the air, as if to say, "Yes! Yes, please! Run, run, run!"

So, I repeat the process with my hand (as I learned to do on Youtube) and he scampers onto my finger elevator again, then darts away before I can get a good grip.

Silly nutsy-kookoo, like I said.

I am not the most patient person in the world, but I do give him all the chances in the world to get used to the idea before I just clamp down, lift him out, and introduce him to the ball, which he squirms to get into.

He doesn't mind being held and likes it when I scratch behind his teeny-tiny ears, but he's also not the most patient gerbil in the world and soon wants to squirm free to leap to the floor and scamper off to who-knows-where.

Not having that, of course.

I am trying to figure out the best way to cover the cage sides so that his 'burrowing' habit doesn't continue to cause so much mess and bother for me.

She had used colored duct tape, which was pretty and went well with the cage decor, but I also noticed that 'little guy' was nibbling on it, and I don't know if that is a bad thing or not so I removed it as soon as he officially became mine.

I've used him three times now for my Youtube channel, recording his cage antics and then voice-over'ing the footage for the channel.

Maybe HE will become the next Youtube superstar and I'll never have to worry about revealing myself if I ever start to gain a following.

LOL

Thanks very much for stopping by and reading my post about My Pet(s).

Please scroll down to the LinkyLink tool and click on the next person in line for this Blog Challenge to find out about Their Pet(s).