Remember Snickers? She was the grand dame of the mice ladies, and she has stopped. She was very very very old, for a Gerbil. For a couple of days, it was obvious she wasn’t feeling like herself. She made her own nest behind the wooden house and slept for almost 40 hours. Then she died. She was a nice little booger who didn’t bite people’s hands (or the heads off her babies) and she had a good life. She never knew anything but seeds and kindness. Her three daughters are all getting up there, too, but they seem hale and strong.
Visitors to the house would often remark on how TAME our sugar-hearted little mice ladies are, but this is an easy thing. No person in our house ever grabbed at them or chased them. If you have seeds or cardboard, gerbils will come to your hand, and if you have seeds and cardboard every day, the human hand entering the tank comes to mean lovely things. Our girls will all hop happily onto a hand. The boldest---Alice and That Cross Dressing Poet Tennyson --- will try to run straight up the attached arm. Cosy Mole Mouse is the shy-est, and will never put more than two paws on anyone's palm but mine. She is my favorite, and the oldest now that Snick has gone, because she came from the first litter.
I found Snickers yesterday, and Scott lifted her out and put her in the small box that my kitchen scale came in. Then we called the kids in and told them. They were quite pragmatic about the whole thing.
“Aw man, I liked Snickers,” Sam said, and then his gaze became slightly avid and he said, “Can we see the dead body?”
“I want to see the dead body,” said Maisy, and then immediately reversed her decision, “Is it very dreadful? I don’t want to see the dead body.”
I said, “It is not at all dreadful. It is only a the body of the gerbil who used to be Snickers. Snickers isn’t there anymore. It’s just an object now, like the box, and it is nothing to be afraid of.”
So they gathered around the box and we viewed Snickers, curled in the bottom, clearly dead and not sleeping, all the Snickersness gone and woodchips clinging to her unanimated fur.
Maisy shrugged. “Snickers is gone from there.”
I nodded and was about to say something REALLY WISE and PITHY and chock full of UNDERSTANDING ABOUT THE MEANING OF LIFE AND THE GULF OF DEATH that I am SURE would have molded my children into better people, but then Maisy brightened up and said, "Now can we get a puppy?”
I said, “That’s a GREAT idea,” at the very same time Scott was saying, “Dear Lord, NO,” in tones of such abject horror that I fear a puppy is not forthcoming.
Rest in peace, Brother Snickers. You were a most excellent gerbil.
RIP, Snickers. You will live on in the memories of FTKers everywhere.
On a side note, Maisy's dialogue sounds like it belongs to the younger sister in an Austen novel -- say, Margaret Dashwood. "Is it very dreadful?" Heh.
Posted by: Aimee at June 16, 2008 10:17 AMDreadful is currently a BIG and popular word in Maisy's lexicon.
Recently she told her father he was no longer "a terrible ogre" he said REALLY? and she said. "YES! you graduated, like I did from Kindergarten. NOW you are a DREADFUL ogre."
Posted by: joshilyn at June 16, 2008 10:47 AMDoes she pronounce "ogre" right? Because at 40+ I still say Org (like the abbreviation for "organization") ... which causes people to look at me like I have an eye in the middle of my forehead. *sigh*
Lucky Snickers, now residing in the endless cardboard/seed heaven.
Posted by: Mittany at June 16, 2008 12:24 PMYour little girl is just DELIGHTFUL. . .and I remember the stir you caused with Cosy Mole Mouse. . .quite the celebrity. Sorry for Snicker's passing.
Posted by: Roxanne at June 16, 2008 12:49 PMMy condolences. Rest in peace Snickers.
Posted by: KlindD at June 16, 2008 1:04 PMI vote for a new puppy!! A little cute (non-Bagel type) puppy like a Yorkie :) It could be named after Snickers! And it would be "Dreadfully" awesome!!
Posted by: Becky at June 16, 2008 2:33 PMRest in peace, Snickers.
On another note, I vote that you try to get Maisy hooked on saying "amiable" next.
Posted by: DebR at June 16, 2008 3:41 PMRIP, Snickers. And yes, I too am in awe of Maisy's vocabulary.
Posted by: RandomRanter at June 16, 2008 4:46 PMI am so sorry about Snickers. My kids, long ago when they were still shorter than me and lived just down the hall, had any number of sweet, good tempered pet rats who we adored. So I know how something tinier than a ham sandwich can still be loved.
Moving on, I adore that Maisy uses the word "dreadful". William was/is like that. Regularly used words as a wee child that most adults don't even have in their vocabulary. And when a new one comes up, even now as a book avoiding (sigh) teen (double sigh) an unfamiliar word used in his hearing makes him perk up and ask "What does it mean?!"
Posted by: Laume at June 16, 2008 8:20 PMI am sitting here crying over a gerbil I never even met. Most dreadful.
Good bye Snickers.
So sorry to hear about the loss of Snickers :(
Posted by: Lia at June 17, 2008 10:03 AMI'm with Deb, amiable is a great word. Although I sincerely suspect my second husband left me because of my habit to pick up victorian words... like amiable and lovely spoken with a poorly affected British lilt.
Posted by: Cele at June 17, 2008 12:20 PMAwwww, sorry about poor Snickers...it is quite dreadful. I, too, am in awe of Maisy's vocab!
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