Friday, October 26, 2007

Duke's Adventure

The #1 thing you don't want to see when you've returned from a weekend of camping:
AN OPEN DOOR ON THE HAMSTER CAGE
It really was inevitable, so they tell me. "They" being everyone who has owned a hamster.

We returned from a weekend of camping (where I knit like a mad woman on Zack's afghan) on a Sunday night and to Zack's horror, Duke was AWOL. Duke is a dwarf hamster who came to live with us last February. He's pretty cool as far as rodents go and quite social. When I saw the bag of hamster food next to the open cage door, I knew exactly what had happened. I (that would be me, The Mom) fed Duke and FORGOT to shut the cage door. At that point I knew I had about 18 hours to located said rodent before the dog, who thinks hamsters should be kept in dog tummies and not cages, returned from her weekend at the dog spa.

Well, we got out the flash lights and looked under everything. Oh my God, the dust bunnies! Around midnight we gave up. Zack put saucers of water and pieces of dog kibble (Duke's favorite treat) in each room, we turned out the lights and went to bed.

Hamsters are nocturnal.

I got up every half hour to try and chase down the scratching noises I heard throughout the night. By the time my alarm went off, I had maybe gotten 2 hours of sleep. It was going to be a long day. I shuffled to the kitchen to get breakfast going as I yelled to Zack to get up and wouldn't you know it, Duke came scurrying out from under the oven looking for breakfast. I scooped him up, degreased him a bit and put him back in the cage making sure the door was secured! Every morning I tell Zack to get up and then poke my nose in Duke's cage to say good morning and give him a treat. He probably heard me from under the stove and thought, "Woohoo, breakfast is served!" Smart little hamster. I can only imagine what he explored all weekend!

Duke the Dwarf Hamster


Sophie and a freshly de-stuffed buffalo

Stay tuned for the Great Dust Bunny Rodeo and Round-up. Coming to a Blog near you!

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