Fort McMurray’s most famous gerbil is set to be immortalized in a children’s book.
Julie Lodge’s four-year-old pet gerbil, Thunder — not to be confused with celebrity Fort McMurray hamsters Jack and Peanut — gained some renown after several radio interviews about Lodge and Thunder’s harrowing escape from the wildfire-ravaged city.
“The people of Newfoundland fell in love with my story and the gerbil,” said Lodge, originally from Newfoundland, who fled to her boyfriend’s place in Kelowna with Thunder following the May 3 mandatory evacuation.
While in Mexico on a vacation a few weeks after the evacuation, Lodge received an email from Gavin Will, owner of Boulder Publications — a St. John’s area book publisher — about turning her story into a children’s book.
“Her attempts to save this really small, defenceless animal really encapsulated what was going on in Fort McMurray at the time,” Will said of the community coming together. “Her story was just intriguing and she has a real humanity to her.”
Will presented the book idea to Lodge as a way to help some of the displaced children cope with what they had gone through.
After Lodge signed off, Leanne Shirtliffe, a Calgary-based author was approached to produce a first draft of the book. Georgia Graham from Lacombe did the illustrations.
The working title of the book is “Saving Thunder the Great: True Story of a Gerbil’s Escape from the Fort McMurray Wildfire.” Lodge’s character is called ‘Mama’, and the story revolves around her 11-year-old son, Jackson, being reunited with his pet gerbil.
In reality, Jackson, who is in Newfoundland, will next see his beloved Thunder only in August, when the mother-son duo plan to make their way back to Fort McMurray.
Lodge flew to Newfoundland Friday to see her son, but Thunder remains at her boyfriend’s home in Kelowna since gerbils are not allowed to fly without providing two-week notice.
Although a book project usually takes around two years, publishers are planning to fast-track the process for a fall 2016 launch, preferably in Fort McMurray, said Lodge.
“I hope that it kind of shows people outside of Fort McMurray that, you know, there’s a lot more to that town that’s kind of perceived in the press,” Lodge said.
Thunder, in the meantime, has been receiving the red carpet treatment.
He was recently bought a new cage and “gourmet” gerbil food, said Lodge. “He’s a superstar gerbil.”