I got some new babies for Mothers’ Day. No, not human babies. Furbabies!

We’ve had gerbils for years, ever since my daughter wanted “a small pet” when she was seven. I had gerbils when I was a kid, so that’s what we got. We’ve gone through a couple dozen since then, and once again were down to one as of a couple weeks ago when our little Onix passed away.

His cagemate, Sandy, has definitely been mopey since then. Gerbils are social animals, and are happier in pairs or trios. So we stopped at our local Pet Supplies Plus to see if they had any potential new friends for him.

They had three darling babies there, and two were boys. Since we didn’t want two to turn into two dozen a few months down the road, that was a must. But we don’t yet have names for them.

Sandy’s name is actually Sandslash, after the Pokemon. His former cagemate was also named after a Pokemon. We’ve had gerbils named after snacks (our original two were Ho-ho and Twinkie), and drinks (like KC [Kahlua and Cream] and Bailey). But none of those are  a requirement.

The lilac one (silver-gray) is a wheel fanatic. They’ve been here about four hours, and he hasn’t stopped running on the wheel since. He’s jumpy and squirmy – not unusual for gerbils, especially young ones.

The other is called a spotted Siamese. He’s mostly uninterested in the wheel (it usually seems to work that way). But even after this short a time, he’s warming up to us. The last couple of times I’ve gone to check on them, he’s practically climbed into my hand. He’s relatively calm, and will sit still to be petted. Sandy (gold one in the background, above) is the same way – he’s the calmest, most mellow gerbil we’ve ever had. And like Sandy, this new baby purrs. Yes, gerbils purr! You can’t hear them, but you it feels like they’re shivering, yet they’re relaxed, and aren’t trying to get away.

Yet even now that we’re getting to know them, my daughter and I aren’t sure what to name them. So please comment with your ideas!

Luckily, I don’t have the same problem with characters in my books. They usually freely give me their names. (Don’t be too jealous – that’s the only thing they give up that easily!) One of my goals this week was to work through How to Think Sideways, Lesson 5. I not only did that, but whipped through Lesson Six (which was just reading, no worksheets) and started on Lesson 7, where we started defining characters. Names? No problem.

Here’s the rest of my goals results:

• Complete Lesson 5 of How to Think Sideways – Done!
• Develop Book Info sheet for Hangar 18: Legacy and follow up with other beta readers – Book Info done, forgot to send the emails.
• Write guest blog I promised, and email the written one to the blogger – Emailed the one, didn’t get to the other
• Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts – Got three intervals and two short workouts
• Track exercise and consumption – Did well until yesterday. Lots going on, at least that’s my story!

Overall goal progress:

• Release Time’s Fugitive, in both ebook and print – Done!
• Complete Holly Lisle’s How to Write a Series workshop – Done!
• How to Think Sideways workshop – complete through Lesson 8 (1-4 done previously)
• Release Hangar 18: Legacy – OR – release Times Two (Time’s Enemy/Time’s Fugitive box set) as an ebook – Cover design for Hangar 18 done! Also got some great feedback from first beta reader – thank you, Carey!
• Bonus: Both of the above – on hold until other goals accomplished

Do you have any ideas for names for our new babies? Please comment and let me know! How are you doing in this round of ROW80 – or if you’re not a writer, or not doing the ROW, for this spring? Let me know that, too, even if you have no name ideas!