Animal Trauma at Preschool!

I'm enjoying teaching preschool two days a week. I am now teaching by myself. Today I was sitting with the kids on the carpet for "show and tell" when one of the boys says, "There's the mouse!" I proceeded to acknowledge him, knowing that there is a gerbil in a cage on the counter behind me. When he said it for a second time, though, I turned around to see the gerbil not in its cage, but running around on the floor!!!! I'm not an animal person. I've never had a pet (besides our goldfish growing up), never want a pet, never will have a pet. And rodents...I'll be honest, they scare me! With 25 minutes of preschool left to go, I thought about just going outside, shutting the door, and letting the kids play outside. But then I thought to myself--what if the gerbil hides somewhere and we can NEVER find it? I don't know if I'd be able to go in that room again not knowing where that little fella would be hiding ready to run under my feet at any moment.

I hoped that Pennie was home, so I ran into her house yelling her name, but she was gone. Then I called Steve on the phone for him to track her down for me. He told me I better calm down! I thought I kept my cool pretty well on the outside so the kids wouldn't panic, but on the inside I felt like I was having a heart attack! I couldn't believe how calm all these little kids were. One of the girls was a little scared, but I think the rest of them liked it!

I started opening cabinets to search for something that I could use as a trap. I found one with small holes in it and dumped whatever contents were in it out on the counter (all of course while I'm trying to keep track of where the gerbil is running). By this time I'm trying to get the children over to the table to do a craft project, while babysitting the gerbil on the other side of the room. This of course did not work very well! Kids are great at entertaining themselves, though. After chasing this fast little critter around for 10 or 15 minutes, it must have started to get used to me because it slowed down enough for me to throw the container over the top of it. I sighed in relief as this was a small miracle in my life, and then I found the heaviest object near (Michael's baby airplane saucer/chair) and put it on top of the container to make sure it couldn't get out. We managed to finish our craft project, get everyone's shoes on, backpacks on, and all papers passed out and I was only two minutes past ending time. My heart felt like I had run an extra 3 miles, though!

I called Pennie when I got home to tell her there was a little friend waiting for her in a plastic basket in the preschool room. I really hope that never happens again. I'm such a wimp!