We have a hamster. He lives in a brightly colored wire and plastic cage atop my son’s dresser. His home is adorned with a green exercise wheel and mounds of eco bedding for maximum hamster burrowing, and an endless food supply. His name is Albany, although we just call him “the hammy”.
In case you are wondering…
If your son doesn’t close the top of the hammy (hamster) cage…the hammy will escape overnight. This is a hard lesson to learn at 6:20am on a Wednesday morning. Common sense would predict 6 different kinds of tragedy waiting to unfold.
The process of finding a live (or dead) hammy in a 1700 square foot house is the equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack. It fills the hamster owners with dread. There is fear of finding him half dead, all the way dead and even more fear of not finding him until the smell of decomposing hamster wafts into the hallway. You can see the dilemma here.
As a matter of record, pure bred cats are not bred for hunting. This is a silent blessing. Cats will however tipoff said hamster owners to the hammys location ….say in the corner of the rec room, hiding under a sweatshirt.
Hamsters are fast. Disappearing into thin air is a hammy skill set. So is slipping under a door unnoticed. The hammy is unable to differentiate from big scary cats looking for a snack from human people who offer shelter, toilet paper rolls toys and yogurt drop treats. To the hammy – both are to be feared.
Ultimately, the hammy will underestimate the intelligence of his human people (and the flat out blind luck of those people) searching in the pantry. The hammy was safely captured and returned to his caged sanctuary (with a locked cage door). Although this owner has temporary high blood pressure from the stress of the great escape and cannot recommend this type of “excitement” at 6:20am on a Wednesday morning.
Current Score: Hamster – 0, Lazy Cat Predators- 0, Human People – 1.
