That is a blue dilute gerbil, carrying the gene 'd'. It has been available in Europe for many years but no blue gerbils were present in North America. Until now!
Hatching the Plan
Tracy and Sami K., AGS members from Cambridge, MA, went home to visit family in Finland in May, 2008. While there, they visited a gerbil show and met some blues in person. They were captivated by their beautiful rich color and brought home many pictures.
Here in the US, Steve of Shawsheen River Gerbils starting thinking. What would be involved in importing some blue gerbils? Tracy put out some feelers, and soon Steve was in touch with Sirkku Alanne of Aavehaltian in Finland. Sirkku was prepared to work with us provided the animals could be transported in the passenger compartment and not shipped. To our surprise, our first phone call informed us that Finn Air would allow the transport of small animals in the passenger compartment, provided they fit under the seat. The plan was set in motion.
Blue Gerbils, Red Tape
Steve knew that the tricky part would be getting all the ducks in a row - in this case, the "ducks" being all the US agencies that had a stake in this or who thought they might. We had joked for years that if there was ever a man to do the job of importing blues to the US, it is Steve: his ability to locate regulations and laws on the Internet, not to mention read and understand them, is unparalleled.
Steve learned quickly that the regulatory difficulty would come from the fact that gerbils fall into a gray area - pets, but not common pets like dogs or cats, for which the rules are clear; and rodents, but not laboratory rodents. This ambiguity both helped - when various agency officials shrugged their shoulders and said "no rules apply", but also added complexity. For instance, Steve ended up having a whole go-round with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) who thought that the gerbils were not importable. Eventually, a very helpful staffer at the US Dept. of Agriculture, backed by the US vets in Baltimore, provided convicing arguments for the CDC to uninvolve itself.
The US Fish and Wildlife Dept. ended up being the body who took it upon themselves to oversee the importation. Their normal procedure would be to have an inspector look over the animals and paperwork at the airport before allowing them into the country. However, since Steve was travelling to and from Finland on the Saturday and Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend, the inspection office would be closed. This meant that they would have to offer the inspectors at JFK airport an option to take an overtime slot to perform a Sunday inspection. If no one chose to work the overtime, USDF&W would issue a conditional release to Steve which he must pick up on Friday in person. When would he know if he needed to be in New York on Friday? That Friday morning.
In the meantime, we prepared ourselves. Steve scrutinized the airplane map and chose a seat which would give him the maximum under-seat space according to FinnAir specifications. We researched shipping boxes on the Internet. After some study, we settled on the carrier pictured above. I called to ask specifically about whether the box would be chew-proof for gerbils. The very helpful customer service agent assured me the box had sturdily carried mice and rats all over the world. "Yes," I insisted, "But these are gerbils! Do you know how they chew?"
The boxes arrived (two, so that I could experiment with one) and we plastered them with all the many required stickers and tags. They did seem pretty sturdy and spacious: bigger than a medium critter keeper, although with a low ceiling. The 3 oz. gel restriction meant we could not use the all-purpose food-water substrate sold with the boxes. Instead, we strategized with the gerbils' breeder, Sirkku, about every aspect of their care on route: bedding, food and water, and what we could legally import on each side... US gerbil food, Finnish gerbil food, US apples, Finnish apples... I kept staring at the boxes, wondering whether they could securely keep five gerbils in two clans safe from each other for a 10 hour trip. Finally, I decided to give the boxes a trial run.
Best Supporting Actor
Every good story has a few bit players, and this is no exception. Enter Aace, pictured right. Aace came to us back in September, a renegade gerbil who'd so frightened his previous owner with his vicious biting that she could no longer care for him. I confess I was somewhat intrigued by the thought of a vicious gerbil, and I am always hopeful, so I took him. Our first few days together starting promisingly. But after a failed introduction and attempt at socialization by a volunteer, Aace showed his true colors: he is indeed an extremely fearful animal who will bite viciously if startled. He's also one of those restless, high-energy types. If I needed to test whether an extremely driven gerbil could chew his way out of an enclosure, Aace was the boy to prove it.
With some trepidation, I loaded Aace into one side of the box and a hearty elderly female pair into the other (figuring that at least they could defend themselves if Aace got to them before I could). With bedding, food, a tube and a wad of toilet paper, they were set to simulate a plane trip - while sitting on my office floor.
It was hard to concentrate on my work; I was watching the shipping crate. First, there were sounds of happy tube chewing on both sides. After a few minutes, the girls did a bit more scuffling, then some digging, then settled down. Aace was restless. While neither party seemed to notice the others, there was plenty of sterotypical digging and banging about on Aace's side. Suddenly, I heard a new chewing sound: Aace had found the low edge of the lid, where it made a depression for easily opening the viewing hatch. Like a gerbil Harry Houdini, bent half backwards Aace proceeded to work on this edge. In ten minutes had chewed a slot large enough to slip a dime into. Disaster! There would be blue gerbils running all over the floor of a FinnAir flight! I quickly removed the girls, then went in to get Aace. Aace sensed my uncertainty and finished up his demonstration by piercing the pad of my right hand with his teeth. As I pried his jaw open, he turned and bit my left thumb for good measure. It looked like someone had stuck a knitting needle through my hand (although it healed up faster than I'd expected). Time for a remedial solution!
Reinforcements
Steve was travelling on business the week of my unsuccessful experiment with Aace, but upon his return, we took matters in hand. The next weekend became Operation Shipping Container. Phone calls were made; multiple hardware and feed stores were visited. Armed with a large roll of hardware cloth, some new tools, and a hand-drawn blueprint, Steve and Caroline spent most of the weekend snipping, clipping and filing smooth two perfectly-sized hardware mesh boxes to fit inside the two halves of the container. Closing the boxes posed a challenge; we settled on tiny jewelry findings to lace the fine sides of the cage together. The boxes were a delicate work of art but (we hoped) strong enough to hold a gerbil for one 10 hour flight. The second test (with different gerbils) was a success. On the last weekend before Thanksgiving, the shipping box problem was solved.
More to come...
Photo Gallery
A good side shot of one of the blue sisters, Aavehaltian Unknown ("Nova")
5 baby blues, born to Hippu and Harriet 12/23/08
On wheel, dilute lilac Aavehaltian Undergraduate ("Gabby") and one of her blue dilute sisters
This poorly focused picture better captures the rosy color that you see in the dilute lilac in hand.
