So...I was on my hands and knees today.

Yup.

I got out of work and my friend Jenn had been visiting for a couple of days so that she could house hunt during the week. She is moving up in June and she was looking at places.
She was just getting ready to leave and I walked into the kitchen to get something to drink...and I saw it.

Something scurried across the kitchen floor.
Okay..so I live in an apartment which means my kitchen floor my be only about 5 ft wide.....and it was easy to spot. Not to mention the fact that it was white and tan and scurried pretty slowly.

The stupid gerbil (Shadow) got out..again.

I think fast. I need to block the entrance so it (he) doesn't get out and hope he doesn't run behind the stove or fridge. I run and tell my friend Jenn that I need her to help me catch this thing.

Like a friend..she did.

I grabbed the cage and put it at the entrance with the side door down like a ladder back up into the cage. The last time I did this It was because he ran behind the entertainment center. I had to trap him there and herd him back up the ladder and into the cage.

It worked then.. it'll work now.

So I'm blocking off parts of the door way with one of Angel's lunch boxes and his cage in the middle with the ladder down. There was only a small space (maybe 3 inches) on the far right corner of the door that I was covering just in case. Jenn's job was to stay behind me and grab him in case he ever got past me.

He ain't gettin past me.

So Shadow starts inching his way toward his cage (like I knew he would) and as he gets closer...I see in his eyes that he caught on. It was like he jerked his head a little and was like.."oh...I've been here before". And like THAT *snap fingers*. He darted his little pudgy body towards me like a fuzzy bullet.
It's a good thing I have cat-like reflexes cause let me tell you....that's EXACTLY what I looked like. A friggin cat pouncing up and down on all fours with my front paws cupping the ground in all different places trying to catch Shadow, who for some reason kicked it into turbo and started zig zagging all the way past me.

"JENN!!! GET HIM!!

Poor Jenn (who was already convinced that she wasn't going to have to actually participate...because I was so cocky about the fact that " he wasn't going to get past me anyway") actually had to spring into action and land on all fours too.

Shadow flew right past her.

Straight behind the entertainment center.

Me: "Okay, we got this".

Jenn: "Grab something so we can trap it or cover it".

Right then I grabbed the laundry basket and was getting in position on one side of the entertainment center and Jenn was on all fours ready to catch him on the other side.

Bare-handed.

(See where this is going folks??)

At this time Shadow must have had another one of his "oh I've been here before" moments and decided to dart straight for the hands who belonged to the girl who was convinced by me that she wasn't even gonna have to do a thing.

So he rushes past her into the hall and straight into a room.

Jenn: "He went into the room."

Me: "What room? Not Dom's room! Noo, not there! We'll NEVER find him in there!!"

Sure enough. Dom's room.
Dom's room is a disaster.

Lucky for us that we have a spare mattress under Dom's bed and his TV stand is right next to the bed and the door so it cornered off. The gerbil ran directly into the corner amids all the crap under, behind and beside the stand. Jenn had the basket and I coaxed it out again and sure enough...we caught him. Not with our hands of course.
Now I had to just reach under and grab it and put it in his cage.
I reached under the basket trying to keep my hand as flat as I could and snatch it. As soon as it got near my hand it saw the gaps that were on the sides of my hand and tried to make a run for it.
I swear. I looked like a fricken cat again pawing around trying to catch the gerbil. I caught it though and finally got it stabilized in my hands while we looked for the piece of cage that was missing. Can't find it in this messy room.

Whatever...I turned the basked over and stuck him in there, he can't climb out because it's one of those round tall ones.

Jenn finally got to leave and I am going to get the kids now...they're gonna love this story.