This family is quickly gaining a reputation without even trying. It all started innocently a couple of years ago when my daughter desparately wanted her own pet hamster. Sure, why not? Lo and behold the Easter Bunny delivered Cassie the light brown hamster, equipped with a fancy cage an attached lookout tower, water bottle and loft. From day one, Cassie was a gentle hammie who was fine being held by a 7 year old little girl. However, I think it was about................day 30 or so and the hamster up and died. Turns out, Cassie's gentleness was actually old age. A funeral was held in her honour, and off she went to the dump.
Next came Daisy. Cute as a button, but feisty as hell. She would nip you at forty paces. Consequently, Daisy spent a good deal of time in her lookout tower or in her hammie space ball blasting up and down the hallway, much to the chagrin of our trusty Chocolate Lab, Lucy. Actually, since Lucy knew she was on a higher rung on the animal kingdom ladder (she believed she was deserving of humanness), she paid absolutely no attention to Daisy. She just got out of the way whenever the space ball happened to veer her way. No, the Lab hunter gene was missing in our intrepid dog. She much prefered her food cooked medium well on the Bar B.Q.
While we were biding our time, waiting for Daisy to get used to us, her trust issues escalated the morning we awoke to find her the new mother of 6 babies. Yikes. Immaculate? Nah......just preggers when we purchased her from the pet store. 
My rodent knowledge at that point was minimal, but I did know one tidbit. Hamsters often eat their young. Isn't nature disgusting sometimes? Since my husband and I were up to our parental eyeballs in teaching various life lessons already, I didn't want to add "eating your young, 101 to the list. So, off I went to gather information in order to take on the role of post-natal nursemaid rodentia. The local petstore agreed to take the little guys after 6 weeks of nuturing to sell off to other unsuspecting individuals. I was also informed not to keep them in the cage with momma after 7 weeks. Little did I know that this had nothing to do with lack of space in one cage for too many hammies.
Daisy and babes were now relegated to a high traffic area in the house in order to be monitored. Turned out, she was a natural momma and protected her brood lovingingly. So, 6 weeks came and went and before we knew it, the little ones were old enough to forge ahead on their own..........healthy, perky and needing their own spinning wheel and space module cage. Off they went to entertain other kiddies.
A couple of weeks later, I noticed that Daisy was looking ample in size, but chalked it up to the fact that she hadn't done her postnatal keegal exercises and was holding onto some of her maternal chubbiness.
Did I mention that Nature is disgusting?
While we were away on vacation and the kid next door was looking after Daisy, she went into labour again and produced 12 babies. The Dad? Well, lets not go there................but let me tell you that it was a squirmy uncomfortable conversation trying to explain to a 3 and 7 year old just how their hamster got pregnant again when the only company she had were HER OWN SONS! Everyone assumed their postnatal roles, and I'm proud to say that not one hammie was eaten during my vigil. AND, the babes were sent packing to the petstore (we should get commission) at 5 weeks.
Daisy settled in again as a sole hamster, doing her thing, zipping around in her space ball, hanging out in her lookout tower, eating and pooping and nipping at anyone who came near her. Such a lovely pet, really. Then one day, my daughter went to give her a piece of lettuce and found the door of the cage pushed open. Daisy was gone........off and running, free range of the house.
We looked high and low..................behind every nook and cranny. No luck. So, we kept her cage on the floor in the basement near where it had been situated and made sure there was food available for her consumption..........hoping that she would enter her cage again and all would be fine. Though we saw no sign of her, we could see that she was returning to eat some grub. A month went by before we had the first sighting, but she scampered away so fast that we had no way of catching her.
Meanwhile Lucy? Our trusty Lab? Couldn't have care less. In fact, I'm sure she crossed paths with Daisy in the middle of the night. Perhaps they enjoyed a tete a tete on occasion over a bowl of popcorn watching David Letterman..........who knows? But, Lucy wasn't 'splaining and Daisy r
emained hidden.
4 1/2 months later..............................YES...................... our free range hamster decided to come clean. She peaked out from under the couch in the livingroom (the couch has since been trashed) and stood there long enough for us to pick her up and place her back in her spacey home. What was so weird about the process? We all felt badly that we had to lock her up in such a small space. Daisy lived with us happily for another few months or so and promptly died, as all good hammies do. Another funeral, and another honourable dump disposal. Farewell and over and out. No more rodents. The cage, lookout tower, space ball and water bottle were sold at the next garage sale.
Time went by.........years went by.................with no discussions about purchasing a new caged critter. The stories and adventures continue to be bandied about and were enough to satiate any desires to go down that cedar path again.
Fasttrack to two weeks ago, when Coco arrived for a two week stint chez Awareness. Coco's family were going on vacation. Unbeknownst to moi, resident postnatal nursemaid, this arrangement had been agreed upon between ma famille and Coco's family. I made it clear that I would not be paying any attention to Coco.............no hammie bonding for me. In fact, the very thought sent shivers down my spine as I wondered if I suffer a bit of Post traumatic hamster stress disorder...........PTHSD?
"Fine, fine" says my family, "Don't you worry!" Famous last words? Hmmmm.
Coco was set up in her own space camp, with her little module attached to the side of the cage by a tube, in the basement on the air hockey table with a view of the backyard where it was nice and cool. The perfect vacation spot for one furry finger biting creature. The only time she entered my "world" was when I was at the computer blogging. Coco would spin by in her space ball, often getting caught up in my feet.
All was going swimmingly until last night, when horror of horrors, she went missing. Turns out this crusty critter worked furious and determined to push all of her cedar shavings into her little space module. The pressure seemed to pop the top off it and before Coco knew it, she too had become a Free Range Hamster.
Shock and fear rocked the family as a mad dash with flashlights and moving furniture etc ensued. We all wondered if we could sneak to the petstore to replace the darn thing without anyone knowing, while holding onto hope that A) the little fart is still alive and B) we will find her before her family arrives home late tonight.
It looks like life's lessons will continue this weekend because there's no sign of the happy roaming hamster. With our luck? She'll probably turn up just in time for Christmas dinner.
10 comments:
Good luck finding Coco - we recently had escapee hamster adventures with the school hamster resulting in me vowing - and this is dangerous - that we would never have one of our own, however cute or endearing they may be! Curiously we also had pregnant rabbit adventures this year and the same concerns about explaining eating of young!! :-)
THats a funny post there awareness..
OMG! Awareness I nearly peed my pants over this one!!! Please keep us informed as to whether your fugitive is ever found because now I am dying to find out. I had a wonderful hamster growing up named Spotty. She was so friendly and didn't bite at all but my brother had 2 hamsters and they were both vicious. My sister's hamster committed suicide by climbing to the top of her wheel or hanging from the bars. She came crashing down and was killed on impact. When I moved away from home I bought 2 hamsters from the petstore and they were terrible. I fed them but only by throwing stuff into their cages from across the room they were that vicious. Cleaning their cages was the worse...I needed one of those suits they use to train junk yard dogs. I think that was the only time I rejoiced when one of my pets died. I hated those things.
Good luck finding this escapee.
It's Saturday at noon........no sign of escaped rodent. We are avoiding answering the phone as we do a sweep through the downstairs.......
However, we're off to a cottage tonight. Food is out. Coco has free rein of the house! The varmint!
oh no! keep us posted :-)
I loved reading this! Don't get mad at me for saying this, but I am a rat person. I had nine hamsters (one at a time) throughout my childhood then switched to rats. Rats never bite and usually come when they are called. They are really smart and sweet and love people! I let mine roam around for a few hours a day and then call them back to their cages. Now you think I am nuts huh? I also have two dogs and four cats and they all get along fine with the rats and each other. Ok, I am nuts.
I had four hamsters when I was a kid....one looked like your first picture (named Squirt for reasons that may be obvious and don't need explaining), another, my favourite (yes I choose favourites!), Goldie, who looked like the Hamster pigging out.
I've always loved them because they are cute and relatively easy to maintain, and have actually been thinking about getting another one recently. I just don't think I could take them dying. They should really live longer.
Can I just say I popped on by and never expected I would find a post on hamsters! Thanks for bringing back good memories! :)
Update on Coco!
Got back from the cottage.....the food has been eaten. Coco is alive and roaming somewhere in my house.
The "owners" have been informed.....and took it in stride. In fact they laughed!
Hey Layla........you do have a potpourri of animals in your home. Me? I think I'll just stick with the canine family.
Leftfield......yes I too had hammies when I was young, which is why I thought I should relent on allowing my daughter to "enjoy" one of her own. Once we capture this latest sneaky bugger, that's it for me!
cheers everyone!
I used to have mice and rabbits when I was younger, and kittys as an adult. Animals don't seem to live very long (even my kittys), and I vowed with the last one, that I could not go through the heartbreak of one dying on me again. So now my yard is an open oasis for all that will fly or walk in.... and out of. One such animal is a chicken that somebody in the neighborhood is raising. Rather strange and different, but amusing to watch nonetheless.
Lovely post, I especially chuckled at the midnight antics of Lucy and Daisy sharing popcorn over Letterman. Too funny!!
Oh no..
IM not sure whether you added to my knowledge bank or my disgusting bank!! Especially when I lvoe Hamsters!
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