| The Sooty and Smudge Chronicles (otherwise known as Smooty and Sudge) |
| Tuesday February 11 2003 Okay, so here's the first of my updates in The Sooty and Smudge Chronicles as myself. I brought Sooty and Smudge home as The Gerbils of Friday February 7th 2003. I found them in a very poorly run pet shop in Fribourg, the place was a dsigrace, and having an extra cage with me at the time, I simply decided that I could not leave them there and had to save them. I am in fact an exchange student from New Zealand staying in Avenches in Switzerland and going to school in Fribourg. The Gerbils had quite an adventure that night, going to a supermarket, having pizza and even catching a movie and a coffee afterwards. Then back home and time for bed. The poor little critters had been parched when I got them, their water bottle had been empty, fortunately I'd also bought a sippybottle and could give them water while we were out. I put them first in the little cage for the night because the hamsters were still in the big one, then went to bed myself. Fortunately they didn't spend that first night in my room, as they made a racket settling in. On staurday I swapped the cages around and put them in the big one. They were still very jumpy and untame. If I moved too quickly they got a fright and they did not like being picked up to be moced from one cage to the other. I spent a little time with my hand in the cage once they'd settled a bit, so they could get used to me a bit. At first they hesitated and hid in the corner, then slowly, little by little, the gerbil I named Smudge, for her little white patch beneath one eye, came up and started investigating my hand, The poor wee things were so afraid that they were jumping at each others' movements when they were checking out my hand. It was almost heartbreaking. I was glad I had rescued them... but when will I tell mum... They slept most of the night, as they aren't nocturnal, but decided to try excavating in their cage and woke me early at 6.29am. I learned that they were very persistent! I finally managed to get a bit more sleep before having to get up and go to Lausanne to visit my previous hostfamily. That gave the Gerbils a day to themselves to settle. While I was there I logged in to yahoo and posted on the NZRC message board about the rescue I had made and my dilemma: I couldn't find a name for Smudge's companion. But then Sarah came to my rescue and had the perfect name: Sooty. And so it was decided, the Gerbils were officially named Sooty and Smudge (though sometimes when tired it becomes Smooty and Sudge...) On Sunday night I enticed Smudge in to one of the houses and carefully used it to lift her out of the cage and let her have a bit of a look around. Sooty however was less co-operative, so I just let her push my hand around a bit. She seemed to get enough exercise running back and forth. Yesterday evening, being Monday evening, when I got home I had a little gerbil surprise waiting for me. A new Lesson: Gerbils chew almost anything. The litter critters had chewed a huge house out of one of my hamster houses that i'd put in for them!! There were little bits of the house scattered through the cage, I was glad to see they didn't seem to have ingested any of it! I offered them my hand and a treat I'd bought at the store, and left them to it when Smudge finally plucked up the courage to steal the treat from my palm. A little later I went back and offered them some seeds. Sooty refused everything I offered, but I was pleased that Smudge accepted the seeds and Sooty tried to steal them. I caught Sooty by surprise and got her out and let her have a wander around on me and talked quitely to her. She glared at me intensly when I put her back in, not sure if it was because I'd taken her OUT or put her back IN. I offered my hand to Smudge, palm as flat as I could for the angle, and she started climbing about it, never quite climbing all the way on. Meanwhile Sooty deided to start trying to pull the hairs off my arms! She then came round to my fingers and started nibbling them and my palm, gently mostly, but occasionally enough to hurt. For the most part I ignored her and paid attention to Smudge. When I did this she decided to try pulling the hairs again. Smudge had decided to follow Sotty's example, only she decided that my wrist looked interesting and finally climbed on to my palm. Snuffling at my wrist she didn't notice when I started lifting her, but then she froze when she noticed. I let her have a run around on me and even inside my jacket and gave her a nice pat. By the time I put her back in they'd decided I wasn't so bad after all, and by the end even Sooty was taking seeds from my hands. They're still a bit jumpy if I move too quickly or suddenly, but they're getting used to it. Sudden noises also make them jump a little, but they're becoming accustomed to the clicking of the heater as it turns on and off at night. Before you could hear them jump up and rush about at night when the heater clicked, now they just go on sleeping. So Sooty and Smudge may not be tame, but they've made more progress in the last couple of days than any other animal I've ever met who has been so badly neglected. |
| The Sooty and Smudge Chronicles will be kept updated. As the story grows the earlier chapters will be archived in groups and only the most recent ones will be displayed on the Sooty and Smudge pages. |
| This is the Story of Sooty and Smudge. They are Gerbils. Black Gerbils to be exact. They live in Switzerland with their caregiver, Michelle. Sooty is sooty and Smudge has a smudge, but sometimes they are Smooty and Sudge. Read on in The Sooty and Smudge Chronicles. |
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