Bilbo and Baggins

These are Bilbo and Baggins. They're a pair of Mongolian Gerbils. They are brothers and littermates, and were named for Bilbo Baggins the hobbit from the Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings books and movies. I looked up the name "Bilbo" online and discovered that it’s a Basque name. It took some searching to find a meaning for the name, but eventually we learned that it's most likely a combination of the names "Bill" which can mean either "strong mind" or "protection" and "Bo" which means "wave-like" – so Bilbo probably means “wave-like protection with a strong mind” or something like that. I couldn't find any meaning for the name "Baggins" though. Bilbo and Baggins are Kelly's gerbils. He was missing Luna badly, so I agreed that he could have a new pet if he wanted; especially since my degus often won't allow him to pick them up, so he wasn't getting any comfort from them. I said he could have anything that lives in a cage or tank as long as it's not a snake or spider. He decided on a gerbil, but since gerbils - like degus - do better with company, so he got a pair. They're a little over nine weeks old now; they were born January 6th 2014.