Meet The Gerbils
Math was a cute litte gerbil. He was an intelligent and talented rodent. His brother Spelling wasn't so blessed in the brains department, however. I hate to say it but Spelling really didn't pull his weight around the aquarium (his pine shaving home). Math did all the work. While Spelling ate, slept, and played, Math kept the "house" up and weaved beautiful nests for them to sleep in.
We would put the cardboard rolls from paper towels and toilet paper in the aquarium for the gerbils to chew on and run through. Spelling would do the chewing part but that was it. As soon as we would throw the cardboard in, Math would get on one side and Spelling would get on the other. They could shred a paper towel roll in 60 seconds. When they were done, Spelling would play or go to sleep; Not Math. He spent a good part of each day planning for bedtime. He would take the shredded cardboard and clean tissues that I would throw in and intricately weave them altogether in an incredible nest; much the same way a bird would except with different materials.
Spelling also was a very cute gerbil. Unfortunately, he was simply lazy. I know that's not a nice thing to say, but it's true. Math would sit around eating sunflower seeds and bathing in the sun, while poor Math worked liked a dog. It's no wonder Math died before Spelling. Although, I have to say that Math was on the chunky side and we had predicted he would die first because of the excess weight. Poor thing.
This provides some evidence of the utter laziness of Spelling. I do want to preface this by saying that Math died first and maybe Spelling's behavior was due to his grief for Math, but due to the fact that Spelling didn't help out with the chores when Math was alive, I'd say this surely is evidence of laziness. All Spelling ever did with the clean tissues and cardboard I threw in was drag all the tissues in a pile and lay down on top. No intricately weaved nests, that's for sure.
This ultimately leads me to the scientific question, "are all gerbils created equal?" Apparently not. It seems just as we humans have innate abilities, so do gerbils. I wonder if I'll be nominated for the Nobel Prize this year for this important discovery. See a Table of the different varieties of Gerbils.
