We were at a petshop to buy a guineapig for my oldest son. In a cage they had some cute animals with furry tails with tufts at the end. I had never seen those animals before. Some of them were agoutis, and I fell in love with their beutiful big black eyes, with almond shape. They were so beatiful!! The shop owner told me that gerbils were easy to handle, and if they were released on the floor, they could find their own way home to the cage. I thought it sounded interesting, but at that time i thought we  had enough animals, so I said no.
But I was helpless in love with these animals, and as soon I was in a petshop I went to the the rodents room to get a look at them. I could have looked at them for hours!

My sons kept nagging on me to buy one, and I sure was tempted, but i still thought we had enough animals. Then we agreed on that when the oldest guineapig died, we could buy a gerbil.
Next year when i had my birthday, my sons came home whith two parcels, one big and one small. In the big one there was a cage, and when I opened the small one, a beutiful agouti gerbil looked up on me!! We named him Trixi after the character in the comic strip.I choosed that name beacuse he was cute and rowdy, just like Trixie in the comic strip. (But at that time we thought Trixi was a she.)

I didnīt know anything about gerbils, and wasnīt aware of that they shouldnīt be kept alone. But as we payed him a lot of attention, he didnītget so lonely. Trixi was kind of left behind in the petshop, he was about 8 weeks when we got him, thatīs why the children bought him,they felt sorry for him, that nobody wanted to buy him.After about 1 year, one of the guineapigs died, and we decided to buy Trixi a friend. It was a little 5 weeks old agouti male, we named him Ludde. Trixi seemed to be quite happy whith the company, but unfortunately Ludde carried some disease (maybe wet tail) which gave him and Trixi a bad diorrhea. Trixi recovered, (thankīs to The Gerbil FAQ!) but Ludde didnīt. Then we bought Trixi a new friend, Råttis ( "råtta" is the Swedish word for rat) He was a beuatiful Argente Golden. Trixi and Råttis lived happily together until we bought Lillan (in English that would be the little one)

I didnīt have any intention to buy any new gerbil, but when I went to the petshop to buy some food, I took a look at the gerbils, and when I layed my eyes on Lillan I was completely harmed by her! She came and climbed up into my hand at once, showed no fear for me at all. She was a beatiful black female. ( so we noticed later) I just couldn´t resist her! We still thought both Råttis and Trixi were females, because they told us so in the store, and we hadnīt had anything to compare with. When we came home we could establish the fact that the three of them didnīt lool alike, either did we have on male and two females, or vice versa. We sure were very ignorant back in those days! Well, the tree of them seemed to be happy toghether, until one day.

My son came home and found Trixi running around the house. When he tried to put him back in the tank, he jumped up again, time after time. When I got a closer look at him I could see he had been injured. Then we realized that Trixi and Råttis were males! They had been fighting about Lillan!  In February Lillan gave birth to her and Råttis' first litter. Four beautilful babies!

Trixi was moved to antother cage, we tried to introduce him with one of the puppies when they were old enough, but he wasn´t very friendly. He seemed to be determined to live alone from now on. His favorite hobbies were: Running around free in the house, and play Hide-and-Seek whith my humans.He was allowed to run free around the apartment for a couple of hours every day. He often came to when i was in the kitchen, and sat on my feet, begging for some treats. He loved spaghetti! He also liked to take a bite from the dogs fooddish, and the dog nicely took a step back and let him eat. When he got tired he took a nap under the sink in the kitchen.
He learned to jump up in the coach by himself, and he often came for some company when i was watching TV.

One of his other favorite hobbies was to destroy things. One of his (in his opinion) best deeds was when he chewed a real big hole at the dogs bed! And then he spread the filling all around the room, and sat in the middle of it and looked real satisfied! He also stored popcorn and other treats in a corner behind the TV-set, so he and the dog could get a snack whenever they wanted to!& He was a real rascal, and was always up to some new mischiefs. His favorite food was: Baby cerials, dog food, spongecake, pizza, ice-cream , popcorn with cheese flavour and pasta.

Trixi is no longer with us, he died 9:th of september 1998. He was nearly five years old, and as rowdy and active as ever. He kept an eye on everything that happened
here. According to him, he was the master of the house!And if you havenīt figured it out yet: Yes, Trixi was very special to me. I miss him so much!! He will always have a very special place in my heart.