My pet lemmings keep jumping off the balcony whenever I open the sliding window. What can I do?

Question

This is the 6th one this week. The people at PetSmart are beginning to look at me funny whenever I come in to buy a new one.

It's a high balcony.

Answer 1

Either equip each one with a mini-parachute and teach them how to use it,

OR

put a giant trampoline on the ground below the balcony. When the lemmings jump, they will land on the trampoline... you can catch them when they bounce back up.

If you go with the second suggestion, be sure and invite friends over. Throw some jacks on the floor and see how many you can scoop up with one hand before the lemming bounces back up to you.

Answer 2

Misconceptions about lemmings go back many centuries. In the 1530s, the geographer Zeigler of Strasbourg proposed the theory that the creatures fell out of the sky during stormy weather (also featured in the folklore of the Inupiat/Yupik at Norton Sound), and then died suddenly when the grass grew in spring.[4] This was refuted by the natural historian Ole Worm, who first published dissections of a lemming, and showed that lemmings are anatomically similar to most other rodents.[5]

While many people believe that lemmings commit mass suicide when they migrate, this is not actually the case. Lemmings will often migrate in large groups, as they posses a very strong urge to do so when their population becomes too dense. Often, a small stream or similar obstacle will block the migrating lemmings' path, causing them to stop and scurry around in a panic until the overwhelming urge to press on drives them to overcome the obstacle no matter what the consequence. In most cases, large migrating groups of lemmings will reach a cliff overlooking the ocean (as is common in their environment), where they will stop until the urge to press on causes them to all jump off of the cliff and start swimming to exhaustion. They, inevitably, drown as a result.[6] The myth of lemming mass suicide is long-standing and has been popularized by a number of factors. It is usually stated that the main source of the belief in the suicide myth was propagated by The Walt Disney Company documentary White Wilderness which includes footage of lemmings running head-long over a ledge. The filmmakers contrived this scene by forcing a number of lemmings off a cliff.[7]

Due to their association with this odd behavior, lemming suicide is a frequently-used metaphor in reference to people who go along unquestioningly with popular opinion, with potentially dangerous or fatal consequences. This is the theme of the video game Lemmings, where the player attempts to save the mindlessly marching rodents from walking to their deaths.

Answer 3

Is this for real? The lemming is following it,s natural instinct to do so.Usually lemmings follow each other off of cliffs and meet their doom.This is done approx. once a year by lemmings,like a ritual.Either keep it in side with windows closed or find another pet that,s easier and safer to keep.

Answer 4

Excuse my ignorance but im in australia and have NEVER heard of lemmings, I thought is was a computer game, What do they look like?

Answer 5

Omit the pet altogether, or keep the sliding window shut.

Answer 6

Put up those little mini gates 4 kids and dogs you can get them at petco
also you can put up that green plastic gating or chicken wire

Answer 7

Just get a cat instead-they jump off balconeys for exercise. 'Pity you can't train them to jump back up so you will have to get your shoes on and go downstairs to pick him up.