| Name..............: | Pi Madsen |  | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Genus.............: | Meriones unguiculatus | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Family............: | Muridae | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Order.............: | Rodentia | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Class.............: | Mammalia | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Gender............: | Female | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth.....: | Early July 2002 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Number of limbs...: | 3.141592653589793 (pic) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Gentleman caller..: | Damien Helgesen (sleeping, flirting) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Interview.........: |
(Aug 9 2002)
Q: So, what's your story?
The story of my life isn't very long yet, since I'm just a few weeks old, but
here's what's been happening lately:
Vidar, my new human pet and fun-provider, found himself a mate in late March this year. I
have heard him call her Linda, so that might be her name. Anyway, this Linda appears to be the
pet of this really adorable fellow, Damien. Damien told me that he managed to sneak a subliminal
message into Linda's mind; that he could really use a female companion. I'm betting my left
front leg that he was only thinking about one thing, the horny devil. Men, huh?
Anyway, the message obviously got through, because Linda started to ask Vidar if he
shouldn't go and find a little girlfriend for Damien. Much enthusiastic discussing ensued, but
after a couple of weeks, it was August 7th, I believe, the poor sap goes out and, voila, finds
me.
And there was much rejoicing... Yay.
Q: What's up with your name, anyway? Why Pi?
Yeah, yeah, I know. Pi might be a strange (yet wonderfully geeky!) name for a lady of my
caliber, but Vidar insisted that I'd take it, and I figured I might as well humor the guy. As
you might have heard, I lost one of my legs when I was but a baby. My former pets put some
cotton in the cage, and somehow I managed to get badly tangled up. I don't really want to talk
about that now. But I digress... The point is that I lost my left front leg due to lack of
circulation, and there's only a little stub left. I'd guess about 1/7th of a full sized one.
Which leaves me with approximately 3.14 legs.
Q: And how do you like this Damien character?
Well, he's really cool and handsome and all that, but I think he's trying to pressure me
into something I'm not quite ready for. I'm aware of the fact that he's a man with needs, and
all that, but I really don't feel mature enough for the physical parts of a relationship quite
yet. I have asked Vidar and Linda to keep us separate for a few weeks more, and we'll see
then.
He is a real hunk, though, and he sure knows how to stomp!
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| Updates...........: |
The story continues...
Pi and Damien moved in together early August 2002, and celebrated
the event with a few hours of orgiastic (look it up) festivities. But as
we slowly came to realize, Pi's ovums weren't very responsive. However, in
late October she slowly started to grow, and...
November 4th, 2002, 23:18 - Pi is giving birth!
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you heard me. :)
It seems that Pi and Damien's extracurricular activities have
resulted in a small batch of offspring. The family now includes
four small hairless pink nuggets. Whee! =)
November 8th, 2002; 4 days old:
November 12th 2002; 8 days old:
November 25th 2002; 21 days old:
November 30th 2002; 26 days old:
Linda and myself have agreed to divide the pups among us. She will
keep the two males with Damien, and the females will move into a new cage
with Pi when the next litter is born.
I have named the girls Sinus and Cosinus - I gather
they should go nicely along with Pi. Sinus has a black spot on her
left front leg, while Cosinus has the traditional all-while fingers.
And the boys will hitherfrom be known
as Jason (brown) and Krueger (black).
(Yep, Linda is a horror film buff. ;)
December 7th, 2002 - Litter number two has arrived!
Saturday morning we wake up to find that the cage population has
risen with five. I stayed up until 04:00 to see if I could catch the
birthgiving with my own eyes, but no, she had to wait until I left.
Oh well.
We anticipated the arrival, so we purchased another cage for the
females to stay in, and we separated them on friday. Good thing, too. One
more litter would be a bit over the top. ;)
December 12th 2002; 5 days old:
December 14th 2002; 7 days old:
December 23th 2002; 16 days old:
January 9th 2003; 33 days old:
January 14th 2003 - The security breach
Today I came home from work in the same stupor mondays usually
inflict upon me... but something was amiss. While I was wrestling my way
out of my jacket, the sound of small thumping feet filled the kitchen. And
not only one pair either. Many. I hastily checked the cages, and lo and
behold, the girls' cage has one resident left! We had seven gerbils
on the loose! What's still boggling my mind is that the cage doors were
all closed... They got out, and closed the door behind them. Ack.
Pi, being her lovely little self, was kind enough to come trotting
towards me as I turned around, and had no intention of making a run for it
when I picked her up. I put her back with her daughter and went hunting
for the rest of the escapees. No less than two hours later, all the little
critters were accounted for. Remind me to leave a brick on top of the cage
next time I leave the house. Or maybe just make sure the lid is properly
closed.
Also, we seem to have found a new home for some of the latest
newcomers. A friend of mine has reserved a pair, and the rest will
probably go to stay with an acquaintance of mine who manages a pet shop.
Sad to see them go, but keeping all 11 gerbils would be a bit heavy.
January 17th 2003
Now, according to the plan, all the youngest gerbils have been
relocated. The pair Atle and his girlfriend adopted has been
named Xena and Nefertiti. Rumour has it that they
will get their own diary soon. :)
January 20th 2003 - The Great Escape II
Oy vey. They did it again. Only, this time, the girls were all
gone, and left nothing behind but a smallish hole in the cage.
(Yep, apparently they chewed through it just next to the lid.)
I managed to track down and corner Sinus and Cosinus relatively
quickly, but Pi was nowhere to be seen. Since she could be
anywhere, I didn't bother to search too thoroughly,
and instead made an ad hoc trap with a bucket and some food.
A bit later, when fixing myself some food, I spotted a small
brown head peeking out from underneath my dishwasher. Damn. So,
in a hopeless attempt to lure her out, I basically rearranged my
kitchen, but to no avail, she hid somewhere inside(!) the dishwasher,
and all I could hear was muffled thumping and the occational
muffled squeak. So, I set the trap again, and went out.
Upon returning home, the trap was still empty, of course. I
guess she's smarter than the dust bunnies that kept her company.
Nevertheless, a bit later I heard some rustling noises on the table
the cage usually stands on, and voila, there she was! Apparently,
there's no place like home, and after a short wrestling match,
all gerbils were secured. *pant*
So, now I have removed the extra floor from the cage,
hopefully rendering new jailbreaks impossible. In the immortal
words of Roger Murtaugh; "I'm too old for this sh*t!"
June 12th, 2006 - The end of an era
(I have been neglecting this page badly lately, but one last entry needs to be made...)
Pi, our gerbil died today, peacefully curled up in her sleep, a few weeks shy of four years old. Her health had been declining steadily for a few weeks now, so we knew it had to happen sooner or later. I suppose the recent heat wave gave her the final nudge into peaceful retirement.
Anyway, she had lived a long and full gerbil life. She was mother to no less than nine children, and grandmother to god-knows-how-many. (Five of her children were given away to friends and a pet shop, and one of the ones we kept
was lucky enough to get to provide genetic material to one of my sister's
females. So Pi's family tree has got branches way into the unknown. Which is kind of cool to know.)
Thanks for sticking around, Pi. It's been great knowing you!
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