Mommy, the gerbil's tail fell off...

I made the mistake of reluctantly agreeing to 2 pet gerbils that we got from the preschool teacher. I was feeling like a bad Mom for not letting my children experience the joys, unconditional love, and responsibility of pet ownership. We had 2 kittens for a short time but one of the kids was allergic and a dog is out of the question at least until we have a fenced yard. So gerbils seemed doable. We picked them up on April Fool's day when Dad woke the kids up in the morning telling them to come into our closet and see the puppies. So then we got the cage and told them it was for a new bird at Dad's office and suprised them later. Their names are Emperor Palpatine and Pip (at least most recently, it changes).
Fast forward 3 weeks to yesterday. H. and her friend were playing upstairs and then came down and said "the gerbils got out of their cage" and while I was still processing that, since we were the only ones home and I would no sooner pick those things up than fly to the moon, she then added "one of the gerbil's tails fell off". I confirmed that with her friend - hoping she was flat out lying to me. Then I called S. and in my most panicked voice told him the story. He kindly offered to come home but I told him I'd wait the 20 minutes for the boys to come and deal with it.
A few minutes later H. came down with a little brown furry tail in her hand (ARGHHHHH!!) I think she was a bit suprised by my horrified reaction as I shrieked and told her to throw it in the garbage and we scrubbed her hands. She chuckled and told her friend "my Mom is scared of the gerbil's tail and it doesn't even move". I had to sit down and take a few deep breaths and then I ordered her to go up and shut her bedroom door (since that is where she claimed they were hiding) and then come downstairs.
When the boys got home from school they searched and couldn't find them and then I started contemplating who I could go and stay with until they were caught and back in their cage, or preferably out of my house. Dad got home later and fortunately found them hiding in H.'s room. However, I was reeling again later as I discovered blood on the baseboard inside of Hannah's closet where they must have been hiding. And then AGAIN, this morning, on the other side of her closet on the baseboard, on a cloth basket in her closet, and even on the carpet!! BLECH! I really don't do well with this kind of stuff. I thought of taking a photo for this blog but I haven't even been able to look at the little varmints yet.
Perhaps a dog wouldn't have been so bad...