The chuffin' Gobi Gels, innit
In March 1998, four Mongolian reed vole girls moved into the glass pent'ouse above the Rat Palace. They din't 'ave names because they all 'ave a look the same, accordin' ter our 'uman, right, and we 'ave ter agree wiv 'er because they did all look pretty similar, even for rodents! Right! They were collectively known as the chuffin' Gobi Gels because their ancestors come from the chuffin' Gobi Desert and their Mum and Dad were called Mr and Mrs Gobi.
Here's wot they looked like:
As yer can see, they were about four inches long, wiv a stubby tail on the end of about an inch and an 'alf. They were brown on top and grey underneaf and 'ad wee black mince pies and wee, round ears that yer can 'ardly spot under all that fur. We're reliably informed that the Gels 'ad eight nipples, right, but none of us ever dared ter 'ave a look. They made wee squeaky noises like chewy dog toys wen they fought, which they sometimes did, but uvver than that they're pretty quiet.
Their Latin name is Microtus fortis and they are one of 67 genera of field voles. Field voles are found all over the chuffin' world but these reed voles came from saaff-eastern Siberia, Mongolia, right, Manchuria and eastern China - brrrr! Yer'd fink they'd 'ibernate in all that cold but they din't. They just kept on eatin' all winter long. Yer can't 'ave a knees-up wivout a joanna. This was great for us because we could go and visit them all year round! Oi! They're sposed ter be nocturnal but the Gobi Gels came out from their burrow in the bleedin' wood shavings at any time if there's sumfink interestin' for them ter eat or climb on.
These four lived togevver quite 'appily but reed voles are fairly solitary animals wiv large 'ome ranges in the wild. If any more are kept togevver they can cop right aggressive so we treated 'em wiv respect, know what I mean. They may be wee but they couldn't 'alf be scary wen they wanted to! Blimey O'Reilly! Mostly, right, the bloomin' Gobi Gels spent their time diggin' and 'angin' from the roof of their apartment. We don't know why they did this and it looks pretty weird, but we still fink they're cool and liked ter go and spot 'em wen we're out and about. It's a pity they din't speak the same 'am sandwich as us because we'd probably 'ave copped on right well. That's wot comes of livin' in a cosmopolitan tahn like Laaandon!
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