Chester on the Loose

Chester was the fastest. They found that out the first night when Bobby dropped him.

"The gerbil's loose!" shouted Heather, as if she were announcing the sky was falling.

Bobby dove and missed and bumped his nose against the leg of a chair. He started crying.

Mikey was delighted. He jumped on Bobby's back, like riding a horse and hollered, "Go gerbil! Go!"

"The gerbil's loose! The gerbil's loose!" Heather repeated, stretching herself sideways across the door so it couldn't get by her.

"What!" shouted Daddy, rushing to the rescue, tripping over Heather and sliding belly-first across the floor.

"Here, Chester. Here, Chester," coaxed Mommy, offering a handful of food.

But Chester wasn't interested. He was having too much fun, dashing from one end of the room to the other -- right between Mommy's feet, right over Bobby's arm -- pausing to lick Heather on the nose and then hiding under the sofa.

Mommy and Daddy lifted the sofa. Chester sat next to the wall watching them.

They put the sofa down in the middle of the room, then turned to get Chester. But he ran right past their feet and under the sofa again.

They moved it again, and he ran under it again.

They had to take the sofa out of the room, but to do that they had to take the door off its hinges, and they had to move furniture in the next room to make space for it.

Piece by piece, they moved all the furniture and all the toys out of the living room.

A little after midnight, Bobby cornered Chester and caught him.

"I did it! I did it!" he shouted, with all the pride and excitement of an Olympic gold medalist.

"Gosh, Mommy, that was fun," said Mikey. "Can we do that again?"

"Yeah, that was fun," added Heather.

"I bet I could get him even faster next time," boasted Bobby.

"Go to bed!" bellowed Daddy.

"Now, now, dear, don't lose your temper," cautioned Mommy, petting Chester as she put him back in the cage.

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