After spending exactly two nights away from our babies, we got them back and everything seems to be better than before.
The first night was the hardest. Neither kids seem to understand that we were not rehoming them. Despite how "pimped out" I had their 'hotel' cage, and snacks and etc., both seemed pretty freaked out, and depressed. Batman took it especially hard. He had this "I didn't do anything...why? Why again? I loved you...how could you..?"
Went home and packed up their huge cage and I broke the eff down. I don't think I have sobbed quite like that in a long while. Anyone walking in on me would have thought that my babies died or something. I was literally keening. It didn't matter what I looked at: their plate of eaten food, their yucky ball pit, the toys I made them. Thank God for my wonderful husband who took over and disassembled the cage as well as Lady Tiko/Sarah for taking such good care of our babies. (She even texted me a photo of Catwoman when she came out to play on the wheel.)
We moved and had the cage set up immediately. We would have loved to make the three hour drive back to get our babies that evening, but we were both dead tired at that point. The next day, we woke up with huge grins on our faces and a renewed skip in our step.
Boy, did we get snubbed by them, though! We picked them up and we could tell they knew they were coming home with us and immediately they perked up. But they would not be caught dead letting us off so easily. Meal worms were given to the extent that meal worms BECAME their dinner. (Yes, we offered them a nutritious dinner anyway, just in case, but who were we kidding?) Lots of head and ear pettings, cooing noises and I think they forgave us enough. They were still freaked out by the new apartment but luckily, the cage smelled enough like them (yes, I left it stinky when we moved it) that they settled down in time and played all night. We finally got a good night's rest, too because the lack of wheels turning, the lack of balls exploding from the ball pit, the lack of bells ringing in the middle of the night made it impossible for either of us to rest.
I never thought that silence could be so deafening...
And now that I know what it is like to be without them, even for two nights...I've decided that when we go on vacation, the kids are coming with us. I'll just be sure to call the hotel in advance and make the necessary arrangements.