#Furkid Friday: "I'm Watching You!" (FD)

Hi humans, rodent types, and anyone else reading this. This is Joshua the degu.

I don't know what happened. Just a few months ago I still had all three of my brothers, and now it's just me in the cage. All three of my brothers have gone away. First Jasper, then Jenks, and now Jacob. I don't know where they went, and I don't understand why they went without me. We always went everywhere together.

Don't get me wrong, having all this space to myself, not having to fight over the best nibbles, getting to use the wheel whenever I want and for however long I want, as well as having plenty of room to stretch out and roll around in the sand bath, is great. But I really miss my brothers... Not just because the weather has turned cold and I haven't got anyone to cuddle up with either. Although, now that I think about it, cuddling up with my brothers on a cold night - or day, for that matter - was always really nice, and I do miss being able to do that.

I blame the human caretakers for my brothers being gone. I'm sure they had something to do with it. It must have been them. I mean, even though we did have fights sometimes, my brothers and I love each other very much, so I know they'd never leave me if they had a choice. Plus, the last time I saw each of my brothers, they were being removed from the cage by one of the human caretakers. That means it must have been them, right? I can't think of any other explanation, so I'm watching the human caretakers very closely, just in case they have plans to do something terrible.

For the first couple of days after Jacob disappeared, I was suspicious of everything, including food, and checked each piece out very carefully before I ate it. Not to mention, I absolutely refused to accept food directly from the paws of either of the human caretakers. I'm still suspicious, but I did take the risk and quickly grab a nibble from the Mummy human's paw a couple of times. I ran off right after grabbing it though, just in case she had any funny ideas about trying to snatch me up while I was occupied with the nibble. So far she hasn't tried anything funny, but I'm watching her carefully, just in case she's just trying to lull me in to a false sense of security or something, and prefer to help myself to nibbles from the bowl after the Mummy human has removed her paw from my cage.

I'm watching the Daddy human even more closely, and won't even go in reach of his paw, let alone accept anything he's offering me. He was the one who picked up each of my brothers and removed them from the cage, so I'm pretty sure he's the one I've got to be most careful about watching. Like I said though, I'm keeping an eye on the Mummy human too, just to be on the safe side, but it's the Daddy human I'm most suspicious of.

My gerbil brother, Baggins, who lives in the cage right beside mine, and has been all by himself ever since his brother, Bilbo, disappeared back in April, says they never tried anything funny with him after his brother disappeared. But Baggins has always been easily won over by nibbles, so it's possible they just bribed him in to trusting them with all the Cheerios and Frosted Shreddies they gave him. So his word isn't enough to convince me not to be suspicious of the human caretakers.

You hear that, human caretakers? I'm watching you!

Squeak soon,
Joshua