Fred Dibnah was the last of my Engineering Gerbils and was never quite the same since he lost his cheeky companion Isambard Kingdom Brunel. We tried to introduce him to another gerbil and although keen to make contact with one another, it turned out for all the wrong reasons as they would fight to the point of drawing blood. So we housed Fred in the best home we could make for him and gave him plenty of attention as we do with all our pets.

He was really quite a fun gerbil who got up to all sorts of trouble, often chewing through cables during his younger rebelious stage. His favourite trick was always to disappear into the sofa and refuse to come out no matter how tempting the treats his owners prepared for him outside were. The last occassion saw us taking the scissors to the underneath of our old and tatty sofa in an attempt to break the stale mate. That old sofa is even more tattier now!

Like IKB, he suddenly started to look old and frail very quickly so we took him to the vets just down the road. Luckily there were no tumorous lumps or bumps to report as is common with gerbils but it looked like it was kidney trouble and as a result he kept himself to himself and insisted on hiding all the time during the week that followed. We discovered he had passed away this morning whilst stretched out asleep in his bed.

I think this has to be one of my favourite photographs to Mr D. We managed to get him so tame that you could do anything with him, he was happy to be made a fuss of. He would even stand on your knee to watch TV although I think it was just the flashing images that attracted him and not the gripping soap plots that us humans get hooked on.

Take care mate.