On October 13, 2007 Omaha held the Midwest Gerbil Show at the Carlisle Hotel in Omaha. It was an event to see, over 50 gerbils came to participate in the show. Hover and Michele Rush ran the show. This is the first time that Omaha has taken on the duty of running the show. Most of the participants were from around the state but some people flew in from around the country just to participate in these “Gerbil Olympics”
Most of the events included paper towel gnawing, quickest arm climber and shirt pocket friendliness. All of the owners of the little animals were very happy that the Gerbil Olympics came about because showing animals should be more then just about dogs and cats. Along with the 50 gerbils there was also a hedgehog and a few other fuzzy animals scattered about the room. There even a display of four cakes that were in the shape of gerbils. One man from Omaha came just to see what the competition was like and is planning on bringing his 6 gerbils next year to compete.
I was really surprised when I found this article on the Omaha World Harold website. I had never heard of the Gerbil Olympics before, and if I had I never would have thought that is would be put in a city paper. The idea that people can get their gerbils to do things on command just really surprised me. I know form experience that my guinea pig would never do anything that I would have told her. She just would have given me the face “are you kidding me”. I was actually really excited to hear about this because I can not have a dog or a cat but I have always wanted to show an animal so now I have to opportunity to participate in an event like this.