Alpha Omega Dani February 12th 1996-August 19th 1997
Alpha was really the third gerbil I ever owned. Her parents were my beloved Vampira Dani and Missy Dani, a black and argente gerbil respectively. Alpha was one of only three lilac children they ever produced. She was their firstborn daughter, the only girl in a litter of four. Her littermates were Beta, Gamma and Delta, a black and two agoutis.
I can remember the first time I ever saw her. At the time Missy and Pookie were living in the closet in my bedroom on a chair, so they wouldn't be disturbed too much during the first few days. I would take off the lid and peer down at the next where she and her three brother wriggled helplessly while their mother fed them, or while their father sat on them to keep them warm. I noticed immediatly that there were some different colors, even when they were just one or two days old. One's skin appeared to be rather dark, as did two others. One gerbil, however, was very bright pink. I could already tell her apart from the others. I named her Alpha.
I talked my parents into keeping her and not her three brothers because we had a lonely female gerbil, Splotch, who needed company badly. Alpha moved in with Splotch when she was four weeks old, just weaned. I remember she would always hide up in the plastic habitrail we'd connected, which was stuffed with chips. I'd hardly ever be able to see her, and a lot of the time I would panic and think she'd escaped. However, Alpha never once escaped from her cage, even when there were obvious ways for her to get out. She wanted to stay there with her friend Splotch.
For about a year, Alpha lived in the blue cage that her father now lives in. One day, though, I acquired two new cages and another tank. so she and Splotch were moved into a brand new two story cage, complete with a wheel. Alpha loved wheels. It seemed to be something she'd inherited from her father. Another odd thing she seemed to have gotten from her father was her tail. When Pookie was three months old, his tail was injured so that it was only about half as long as it should have been. Oddly enough, for as long as I could remember, Alpha had a short tail, too. Even when she was a baby.
Alpha died on the 19th of August, the one year anniversary of her mother's death. She was a year and a half just; and not nearly as old as she should have been. We're still not sure just what happened to her, but we know we'll miss her.
The background on this page is a picture of Alpha. If you like it, you can download it here. You can use it provided you link back to my site.