"Call the Shots" Day...

It was Zane's "Call the Shots" day. He had his check up and endured the vaccines due, so he'd earned the chance to go to the store and buy one reasonably-priced reward. He also got to decide what the whole family was having for dinner.

He chose a big ol' bucket of KFC chicken for the family meal. And for his reward... a gerbil.

I was a little on the fence about the gerbil. We'd had two fish, one hamster and one sweet, ancient Pekingese just a couple of years ago. Within a few months all of them departed their mortal coils. It was traumatic string of pet-deaths that left me none too anxious for more critters. But Zane, Mr. Relentless, pointed out that gerbils are cheap and we already had the cage from our stint as hamster-owners, so all we'd be in it for after buying the fur ball was bedding and food.

When Jimmy got home, we quickly ate the KFC, and he and Zane headed to PetSmart. After an hour or so, they came home with a black and white gerbil. Zane named it "Mark." Yeah, I know. He explained that he'd chosen Mark because he was the biggest guy in the cage and he'd be lying on top of all the rest of the gerbils. Had to be the alpha-gerbil.

I, being the mom I am, immediately felt sorry for Mark because he'd left his family behind. Jimmy told me that there were two others we could go get in a day or so. They were all males. It said so on the cage.

Zane took to gerbil-care like nobody's business. He played with Mark everyday. What blew us away was that Mark would take a paper towel roll and shred it in just minutes. Life with the gerbil was great for the first couple of days. Then Mark got "nippy." Every time someone would go to pick him up, Mark would bite. YIKES!!! We'd had an evil, razor-toothed hamster that no one could touch. Looked like the gerbil was headed in the same direction.

Exactly one week to the day after "Call the Shots" day, Zane came home from school. It was our first cage cleaning day. I don't think anyone was too excited about the events that lay ahead. Zane wanted to get it over with, but I told him he'd have to wait for his dad to get home to help him. Reluctantly, he headed back to the family room to try to play with Mark until Jimmy came home.

He'd been out of the office where I was working on the computer long enough to walk down the hall to the family room and open up the cage door when I heard the yell: "Mom! MOM! MOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!"

My first thought was, Oh no! It's only been a week and we've already completed the circle of life! I was running through the short list of ways Mark could've met his demise so I'd be prepared for what was to come when I went into the family room to see what had Zane all shook up, but before I could stand up to go to him, Zane came running back into the office.

"Mom! Mark has babies!'

"What?"

"Mark. He has babies. I think. There are little brown wiggly things in Mark's cage and he's sitting on them."

"You're going to have to change that gerbil's name because if he has babies, he's not so much of a he."

Sure enough, when the counting was done, Mark had seven gerbil babies. We weren't in on the end of the circle of life. We were there at the beginning. Seven. Gerbil. Babies.

We've heard all the jokes: "Eight for the price of one! What a bargain!" and "The Gerbil with the Secret Surprise Inside!" and "Buy One... Get 7 Free!"

No... it's not what we'd have chosen. There's no way in a million years we'd have looked in the cage at PetSmart and said, "Hey, these male gerbils are nice, but do you have a pregnant female one we can buy instead?"

But... it has been a blessing. We've love watching life develop. We've loved seeing Miranda (Mark DID get a new name) take care of her babies. Jimmy and I have adopted Miranda. Zane's new gerbil is Hershey. Kelsey has Killer. And Zack's pet is L'il T. The other four babies were adopted by wonderful new friends. No one is alone. Everyone is happy.

I was having my quiet time the other day and came across Proverbs 16:9: "In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps." His plans aren't always mine. They're better.