Did not have any time for lady den or porch pondering today. Had a wonderful family party and Christmas dinner. Heard some good stories around the dinner table. Funny how we all have different memories of childhood that the other siblings don’t remember. Little brother couldn’t remember the tricycle bear that frightened him.

Broke down and told my daughter-in-law something I had kept from her since she and Thomas were in high school! Years ago Stew and I were sitting in the den in Alexander City, laughing and talking with Thomas and Ashley. All the sudden I saw this little mouse mouse creep up the arm on the sofa and start quietly crawling towards Ashley. I’m serious! I almost had a come apart and heart attack at the same time. Stew saw the mouse too and before he could say anything I gave him the mother scowl “you better not” look. The mouse crept closer and closer to Ashley and when it was almost to her head it stood up in its best meerkat cat pose, rubbed its little hands together and jumped off the sofa!

For years I would tell Stew not to tell Ashley! I told her tonight when we were sitting around the Christmas tree and talking. We all had a good laugh! Then Stew says tell her about the time daddy was kidnapped by the gypsies. Well, that’s a tale for another day…today is the gerbil story.

My kids always had pets — dogs, cats, rabbits, chickens, Mr. T the turtle, birds, fish, hamsters, gerbils. Even a “mean as hell” midget hamster. He sunk his long pointy teeth in my thumb once. Ever stapled your finger? Hurt worse than that! Chief shut him in the front door and squished him dead. We really didn’t miss him. But on to gerbils.

When Stew was in first grade he volunteered to take the classroom gerbil, Kevin, home for the summer. Kevin never went back to school and lived for years. Stew had those tube tunnels all over his room for Kevin to run around. Had an exercise wheel and a convertible. Put him in a little ball in the car and Kevin was off to the races.

He loved to gnaw toilet paper cardboard tubes, Shredded those up like a mulching machine. Loved raisins, anyway when he died of old age we really missed him so this time we bought what we thought were two Kevins but they turned into Frisky and Frisketta. Promptly had a cage full of babies! It was just too much so I had this bright idea to turn them loose in the barn. Well those babies found chipmunk spouses and produced little critters our yard dog hated.

Growleth would pretend to be sleeping and when the little critters came down for bird seed dinners under the bird feeder, Growleth had a field day trying to catch them. Stew and I kept seeing these odd little creatures and couldn’t figure what they were. Finally we figured it out. Every time Thomas would come home for the weekend in college, Stew would tell him about the creatures but course they never came out on those weekends. He eventually saw them and Growleth finally decimated the little critters.

After the gerbil episodes we got the mean little midget hamster. If anyone is getting a hamster from Santa, don’t be alarmed. They are good pets and can be taken out of their cages and played with. I read an article in Reader’s Digest about a hamster that saved a family from a house fire! The family thought he had burned up in the fire, but the firemen found him alive in the chimney.

Good thing they didn’t squish him in the door!