The night before I got the gerbil, I put myself to sleep with thoughts of my new pet, running to meet me on my way home from school and jumping into my arms. I didn’t realize he would have to stay in a cage almost always.
I named him Melanhead after a porcupine that was one of Timmy’s pets on the “Timmy and Lassie” show. The porcupine got run over a car and Kllled. I was very sad because of this episode and so I named my pet, Melanhead.
After I learned he would have to stay in his cage, I was content to just watch him eat his food, drink his water, gnaw on some wood, or run around on his little wheel. He was brown, not too furry, and had a long, skinny, black tail. I really liked him.
I can’t say he was the cutest animal I ever saw, but he was good company.
Sometimes I let him loose in my bedroom to let him run around for awhile. He really appreciated that. Another thing he appreciated was when I would clean out his cage. I was usually pretty good about making sure he had a clean place to live, but sometimes I didn’t do it for several weeks. My room started to smell, and I could tell that
Melanhead didn’t like it either. He didn’t seem to have the same calm disposition. My dad would say, “Billy, you need to clean that cage. How would you like to lay in your own messy pants?” That was usually enough to get me to clean the cage.
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