Cooper saves Mr. Gerbil

Yesterday, while I was diligently working, Maxwell came to inform me that Jacob has taken Mr. Gerbil out of the cage and was trying to put him in the ball again...oh, no...

I spoke with Jacob, who gave me the thumbs-up when I reminded him that he is not allowed to take any of his rodents out unless I'm there.  

We decided that it was time to clean the cages.  Mmm...this is the fun part of parenting pets?  First, Mr. Gerbil's cage.  I looked in, and noticed that his once long, furry tail was no longer, and quite red and appeared to be bloody.  How could this be??  

Well, apparently, Mr. Gerbil tried to escape from the ball (shock!!) and Cooper, being the loving sweet kitty he is, tried to rescue him by eating his tail.  Somehow, though, this didn't phase Jacob at all, because Mr. Gerbil is safely back in the cage.

Note to self:  if a child with autism doesn't do well with time sequencing, and doesn't want/understand what the implications of his actions are...it DIDN'T HAPPEN.  

Anyway,  I reached into the cage, and Mr. Gerbil's bloody tail left a nice red line on my palm.  While I consider myself to have a strong stomach for blood, puke, etc, apparently, I do not have a strong stomach for bloody rodent tails.  So I made Maxwell get him.  

Fortunately, the cages both were cleaned, and the pets are safe and sound (I think - I haven't been in to check on them this morning). But, I can't find the cat...I'm just hoping that he's hiding, not trying to "save" any more of his furry little friends.