Grand Idea! Let's get a pet for the classroom!

A pet in the classroom is one of those many ideas that seem really good at the time. It’s good for children to have something to take care of to instill some sense of responsibility. Pets can make the classroom feel more like home and they can create a more loving environment. See? Great idea, right? Sure, that is until the unusual or possibly the inevitable happens.

The day begins just as any other day. When I look over my classroom in the morning, the students are all filtering in and completing their morning duties . Perfect angels, I can just see all of their halos shining over their heads. As if in a dream I hear a small voice say, “What happened to the other gerbil? Where did she go?” At first I shrug this off and reply with my usual, “Oh their both in there the other is just sleeping, look harder.” Yet, in the back of my mind I am replaying this morning, when I replaced the water bottle that had fallen through the hole in the top of the cage.”

And again I hear that small voice, “ The other one’s not in here Mrs. Powell.”

Crap

Are gerbils really that industrious? Do I just happen to have the adventure seeking breed of gerbils? First thing to do? Reassure all of the kids that, “Everything will be just fine, just calm down and go back to your seats she couldn’t have gone far.”

Well at least I hope she hasn’t gone far. I begin to have visions of unsuspecting custodians finding a large “rat-like” creature dead, or maybe even worse, alive in some dark corner of the school. Then I begin to feel for this small rodent. What if she is hurt or someone hurts her? Thus begins my quest to hunt for our dear lost companion while trying to be inconspicuous as not to insight panic amongst the twenty-some seven year olds.

Behind books, under paper, amongst all the, well…just stuff. Note to self; must strive to be more organized in the future in order to make gerbil hunting easier. Then an idea hits me. Enlist help. Now who…yes, yes the wonderful seven year old angels will certainly be able to help me. Now I have two helpers pulling random items of (perfectly useful) boxes of (previously stated)stuff off of shelves. 
Wait, now there is yelling. Please don’t be dead, please don’t be dead, or smooshed, or eaten or… Yes! She is alive, the wonderful first grade army has found our gerbil. Now…all I have to do is catch it.