Hannibal the Gerbil Cannibal
If you are squeamish – DO NOT READ FURTHER!
“One of my daughter’s gerbils was obviously sick last night.” A woman told me as I drove her to work. “Then this morning I was awakened by a scream.”
“The gerbil was dead?”
“Yes, but the reason my daughter screamed was that the remaining gerbil had eaten the dead one’s face!”
“Woah!” My mind evoked an unbidden and unpleasant mental image. “I didn’t know that gerbils were cannibals. Was that gerbil’s name Hannibal by any chance?”
In further taxi small talk today, I found that pet rodents, other than just gerbils, will eat the dead ones. Pigs will also eat another pig that dies. Yuk!
So this is really a nothing post and I don’t have any deep moral to offer. But if you’re thinking of getting a cute furry little treadmill running gerbil for a family pet, be prepared for the nightmares and emotional scarring that your child could experience as a result of the cannibalistic nature of these creatures.
