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Phoebe and Ciaran Lautrera's first litter was born November 4th, 1997. I had taken a look at Phoebe that very morning, and she was big as tennis ball (figures, since she was due on the 3rd . . . ) But nothing much seemed to be going on. So, off I went to school to sit through 6 classes and a lunch until 2:15 when I could finally go home and see what, if anything, had happened. So, as I trotted home from the bus stop, I knew, I just knew that she wouldn't have any pups. That's what she'd done to me the day before, after all. So I ran in my house, threw my bag and coat into the closet, and dashed upstairs to my bedroom where . . .
Phoebe sat in her little nest, nursing five little pups, squeaking noisily. She'd lost a lot of weight = ) Watch the babies grow! (Warning--LOTS of pics).
5 weeks, 3 days (12/12/97)
The babies are named Adia, Mystery, Grace, Angel and Surfacing. Adia and Mystery are argente girls, Grace is a lilac girl, and Surfacing and Angel are lilac boys.
They liked dad til they realized that he lacked
one important thing--milk.
Lots of pups!
The family often curls up in an adorable little pile. Usually, Ciaran is at the bottom of the nest, and Phoebe at the top, nursing. In between are the 5 little pups! It's sooooo cute . . .
Every now and then a pup wanders out of the nest, or I put him back away from the others, and Phoebe and Ciaran have to move them back. Here, Phoebe has one of the pups (Mystery or Adia) in her mouth and is preparing to dash back to the nest. Ciaran occaisionally does this too, though he usually waits for Phoebe to get them herself.
Their names Adia, Mystery, Angel and Grace are all parts of titles of songs by Sarah McLachlan, on her CD "Surfacing". Surfacing, of course, came from the CD title. So, four of the babies have their own songs. Mystery's song is Building a Mystery, Adia's is Adia, Angel's is Angel, and Grace's is Full of Grace.
 Adia | Adia is the argente female that I'm keeping. She has a young mate, Riven, a patched grey agouti. They should be parents soon! The lastest news on Adia can be found on her page. |
 Mystery
| Mystery is now living with Mindy Arledge in New Jersey. I'll see her from to time probably. I'll try to keep up-to-date on any children she has. She has a mate now, Dana's brother, Sherlock, who is an ultra-dark siamese. He's a cutie and *perfect* for her! Over yonder is a cute picture of her and her "hubby" Sherlock. The two of them became parents of 3 pups on the 24th of April! That litter had two agoutis and a sapphire/dove. For some pics of Mystery, her mate Sherlock, and the 3 babies in their 4th litter click here. |
 Surfacing
| Surfacing and Angel, two twin male lilacs, are now living in the home of Tana Lyman under the names "Rascal" and "Shadow" (I love it, don't you? = ) They each originally lived with one of Tana's girls, Miss Piggy and Sweet Pea. According to Tana:
"They were delivered at 7:50 am this morning!! In perfect health and not even scared, I opened the cooler and two little faces looked up at me like "Hi!!! Sup??" I have never seen young gerbils so tame, I was prepared to have to scoop them up with a cup or something but they weren't in the least frightened of me ;) They are settling into their new homes now, the girls are pretty much reacting like I thought they would, Sweet Pea is interested in a wistful kinda way and Miss Piggy had a temper tantrum at first. Fortunately I don't have to go anywhere today so I can stay home and keep an eye on the wire partitions. I think she has pretty much calmed down now, though, maybe it got through her rodent head that a little bitty boy isn't any threat? I'm going to have to go slow with those two ... she blows it once and he goes in with Sweet Pea and his twin. I'll have to pay her a lot of attention too so she doesn't get jealous, I have never seen a gerbil do this before but she always had a fit when I picked up her sister! " Shadow is a daddy as of 2/11/98! EIGHT pups! 2 are lilac like dad, 2 are argente cream like mom, 2 are argente golden like grandmom, and 2 are dove like . . . umm, nobody! (Well maybe their maternal grandmother/father = ). Rascal became a daddy on March 4th! There were six pups (4 blacks, 1 lilac, 1 argente golden) , and then another litter of EIGHT arrived on 4/5/98. They also have their new webpage, so look there for updates on them, and pictures of them & their families. Visit The Lautreras of Oklahoma for some pics, and hopefully more soon!
 Shadow's babies! From Tana, on Shadow & Sweet Pea's litter: "Congratulate Phoebe and Ciaran, they now have EIGHT grandchildren! I'm still in shock ;)" Newsflash! Shadow had to be separated from Sweet Pea who was being a little aggressive as the babies grew up (weird, uh??). So now, he lives with his argente cream son Spunky ( heeee hee ;) and Sweet Pea lives with her lilac daughter Lily. Also, Tana tells me that she has decided to separate Miss Piggy and Rascal as well = ( Because of the shipping confusion of late she's decided that's not a viable route, and she says there aren't many decent homes in her area, and MP and Rascal are "prolific", she's decided it's best not to have anymore pups. ::sniffle:: and while I totally respect her decision I can't help but get a little misty-eyed = ) However, she tells me she may someday breed one of Rascal's boys--after all, the Lautreras must go on! = ) The Lautrera family of Oklahoma currently consists of: Rascal/Surfacing and his ex-mate Missy Piggy, their black daughter Sheba, their black sons Pookie and Prince, their argente golden son Gabriel, and their lilac son Sherlock, Shadow/Angel, his ex-mate Sweet Pea, their lilac daughter Lily, and their argente cream son Spunky.
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 Grace | Grace is going to be my sister's gerbil. She lives with my sister's other gerbil, Lucy. Latest news can be found on their page. |
Babies' Firsts
12/28/97 - Today Angel and Surfacing *arrived* in Oklahoma, none the worse for their journey.
12/26/97 - Today Angel and Surfacing left for Oklahoma!! I wish them good luck and maybe a few babies too = )
12/16/97 - Mystery was adopted today by Mindy Arledge, who has many gerbils now = ) She was going to be put in a tank with a bunch of other pups but seems to have developed an attitude problem! Well she'll have a friend eventually = ) Also, it seems Adia will have to wait 5-6 more weeks for her mate, but I think she'll live = ) Also the boys, Angel and Surfacing, will soon be departing for the home of Tana Lyman.
12/14/97 - The pups are big sibs! Unfortunately, their one little sister/brother died on the 15th = (
12/6/97 - They're no longer nursing, but will be with their mommy and daddy for a few more days still.
11/22/97 - Their eyes are open! Well, most of them . . . = )
11/19/97 - Boy are they moving! Tap the nest and gerbils go flying all over! Adia is extremely fond of running amok in the tank, her sister Grace tagging along.
11/18/97 - Happy 2 week birthday pups! They're now quite active, running around the tank. However, they're driving Phoebe and Ciaran nuts as they try to keep them put! I've found homes for all the gerbs now = ( Grace will be going to Jenn, aka Mommy2B in Virginia (she may be used for breeding there, so this page will be home to future updates on her babies!), Mystery goes to Mindy in New Jersey (will probably be bred also), and the boys, Surfacing and Angel, will be going to a friend of mine from Earth2 Chat, Paul, aka "Uly".
11/16/97 - The pups have their first outing in the playbox (check the picture page)
11/15/97 - The pups are 2 argente females, 1 lilac female, and 2 lilac males.
11/13/97 - Pics of the individual babies can now be found on the Adopt-A-Dani page.
11/12/97 - I definitely have 2 *argente* and 3 *lilac*. The argentes are probably going to be Mystery and Adia, and the lilacs, Surfacing, Angel and Grace.
11/9/97 - The babies are quite fuzzy now. They're all a grayish color, but 2 seem darker and the other 3 are a lighter gray with light sides, probably argente. I'm thinking I have 2 lilac and 3 argente, but it's too early to be sure. The pic I have for day 5 I think is an argente.
11/8/97 - They're starting to get fuzzy, but since both argente and lilac have grey undercoats they look alike anyway! = )
11/5/97 - Today I held one of them for the first time. All wriggly!
11/4/97 - First day of life, of course! = )
| Parents | Grandparents| Great-Grandparents
| Ciaran Lautrera (lilac) | ???? | ???? ???? | ???? ???? ???? Phoebe Dani (argente) | Pookie Dani (black) | Missy Dani (argente) Arnold Dani (black) | Dani (black) ???? ???? |
This is the babies' genealogy tree (just realized I should've put the names on it . . . oh well). Their great-grandparents that I know of are Dani and Arnold, two black gerbils belonging to Mrs. Dekay. Their maternal grandpa is Pookie, who was born in the Jaguar team Life Science classroom at Talley Middle School. Their maternal grandma is Missy.
Here's some delightfully useless astrological facts about my little ones:
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They share a birthday with: Loretta Swit of M.A.S.H. |
Keep a Dani out of a petstore!
If you're interested, please click the pic & email me and
let me know.
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