ADSactly Personal - The Tale of the Houdini Hamsters
I’m not sure if it was the same when I was a child, but with my two daughters when the ‘littler’ pets died, it is like:
The hamster is dead (get a new one) long live the hamster!
So when Leaflit the hamster died of old age just before Christmas, it was just a matter of hours before his replacement was bought.
Houndini Hamster 1 & 2
It was the day after burying him in the garden in a shoebox, with a few words of heartfelt sadness, tears and telling him that we would miss him forever, we were in the shop picking his replacement.
Actually, it turned out to be replacements as there was this pair of tiny hamsters that the kids fell in love with.
When we got home, when I transferred the hamsters to the cage, one wriggled out my hand and with a massive hamster bid for freedom darted, quick as you like, under the sofa.
Those little hamsters are fast!
In the next three hours, the sofa was dismantled, and we had all manner of contraptions and containers ready to catch the little darling creature, but it was still darting and hiding and laughing at us.
Finally, we caught it underneath a plastic container and managed to slide a book under it too and get the escapee back in the cage.
Tired out (all of us and the hamster), we got him back in the cage finally and he curled up and went to sleep, as did we not long after.
We were awoken by a scream the next morning from my daughter, wondering where the hamsters were.
Where are the Hamsters?
I came in and said it would be ok, they’d just be buried in the sawdust fast asleep.
It soon became apparent they were not.
Even though the gap between the bars was tiny, the hamsters made themselves even tinier and had escaped.
Both of them this time!
So, the sofa had to be dismantled again, as we saw a flash of grey and black dart under it again.
I was happy that one at least was still in the living room, where the hamster cage was.
But the second one was nowhere to be found…
When we were all quiet we could hear this scurrying sound. I tried to locate it - it sounded like it was in the walls.
By this point, we had decided that these hamsters would have to go back to the shop, as we couldn’t look after them in the cage that we had.
When the girls had gone to school and it was all quiet. I heard the scurrying again.
And I swear I heard a mischevious giggle...
I looked in the box of notebooks, important documents, and memories box, that was underneath the hamster cage for the 5th time and this time I discovered Houdini number 2.
I got him in the hamster carrying box and took them both back to the pet shop.
I later discovered quite a few notepads had intricate nibble designs on and unfortunately some of my written words were lost forever.
The Next Hamster Adventure
There was this really cute regular sized hamster that was the second choice, but she was still available so I bought her.
They put her in a little cardboard box and I sauntered across the road to the pound store to get the girls a couple of cheap toys and as I was paying, this little nose appeared out the bag!
This new hamster had munched through the cardboard box she was in, in about 2 minutes!
So back across the road I trekked and asked for some reinforcements, as to get home was a 20-minute walk.
The best they could do was put her in a box inside another box and I had to walk home fast!
I emptied all the contents out my handbag just in case, I didn’t make it home before she emerged again.
The constant nibbling of cardboard was very loud as I legged it up the road.
I got about three-quarters of the way home and she had almost climbed out of the bag again.
With a very slippery hold of her, I got her in my handbag and pulled the strings, with a little air hole at the top. (Thankfully before she slivered out my hands and anywhere near the road)
She was officially a handbag hamster for 5 minutes!
I wonder how many of those there are.
So I carried the handbag gently so she didn’t get swung about too much, or too frightened on her already epic journey home.
When I got home, I opened the handbag, she was bright eyed and happy to be released into the cage.
She had left me a little present in there, but no holes.
We didn’t name her Houdini.
But we did call her Harriet Houdini.
The look she gave when the children came home from school...
Her adventure was only just beginning...
Do you have a pet story to share? I’d love to read them in the comments.
Written with love by @hopehuggs
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I have a beautiful female Dalmatian dog. Her name is Candy (The Monster). Candy had the habit of sleeping with me on my bed. After I got married my dog continued sleeping with me. My wife won’t mind it, considering its such a loving and clean hygienic dog. So we three used to sleep on the bed with me in the centre.
One night I woke up to go to the washroom. When I came back I saw candy sleeping at my place. Since she always needs a human touch to sleep, Candy shifted to my place to get my wife’s touch. I asked Candy to move. She didn’t. I tried to pull her legs she started getting angry. As the last resort I tried to throw some water on her to make her move. Just a little from the palm of my hand. Candy anticipated it and started growling at me. Now I really got furious. I shouted at Candy, “Ok, you sleep here and I will move to the other room.” I just went out and decided to sleep on the bed in the other room.
The moment I lied down, Candy was with me on that bed. Candy had just followed me to the other room. I found it really cute. All my dog wanted was my company and we had this little misunderstanding. I just hugged Candy and we both went back to my room.
I had a dog like that. Though he had just been trained not to go on the bed, then I came along and that habit was unlearned fast, as he just liked to be cuddled and none of us minded really.
When I was in middle school, we were having a test. Everyone was focused quite hard. I took a breather and looked around a bit. Not because I wanted to cheat, mind you. Not this time! I actually just needed to take off my eyes from the test for a moment, that is all.
When my eyes wandered through the class room, I noticed someone watching me. It wasn't the teacher. It wasn't anyone of my class mates. In fact, it wasn't a human whatsoever. Staring into my eyes, from the backpack of a classmate of mine, was a rat.
The rat was just chilling in there, unnoticed by anyone. Curious and cute, unnoticed by everyone but me. The rat was actually the pat of my class mate and hid itself in her backpack before she went to school. That is some real attachment right there!
In retrospect, I am glad that the rat was unharmed. The disruption from the test was most certainly welcomed by everyone taking the test. The rat got a nice ride back home thanks to my classmates mom playing rat taxi.
I'm sure the rat just wanted a change of scenery or a new adventure. Did many people stand on chairs when they saw it?
Actually, solving the situation was supereasy, barely an inconvenience. My class mate had the situation under control quite fast and as soon as everyone knew that the rat was her pet, everyone was more interested than afraid.
Jajajajaja, waooo! I really burst out laughing, especially since I'm the mother of two little girls and I know how important pets are to them and their illusions. I also had a small hamster years ago but I ran with the luck that the small award-winning wine was pregnant, gave birth to two small tiny rodents a week and it was a total surprise, and I remember it was total madness hahaha .... Those little demons used to escape, bite, and leave their thanks throughout the house. Nowadays my girls cry out to me for a pet, I have thought from a small puppy to a cat, but in the end nothing hamsters hahahaha although I will take it into consideration.
Harriet loved the children, I was the only one she bit and drew blood too.
Undoubtedly, the animals get along well with the children ... maybe I'll get him a little one like Harriet for my little girls
I’m really surprised they got out of the cage. They either must had been that small or the cage was made for gigantic hamsters. I have to say, even hamsters can be characters 😆. You have to look at it from the positive side, you know very well how to dismantle your sofa now.
When I was a child I had a love for hamsters as well. We had few of them. Even though we had this one for less then a week, I can clearly remember him forever. It was a winter and I and my sister didn’t want him to get too cold, so we had this idea to put the cage directly on top of the heater. You can figure out the outcome the next morning. It was really sad. Since then, we’ve never had another one.
oh dear. You were only doing what you thought was best for the hamster. But yes they have some much personality in their little sparkly eyes.
With that many disappearing acts, we can call them Houdini indeed but I loved Harriet Houdini the most - both the name and the hamster :-)
Small pets are a lot of work too but they are an extremely good way to teach a lot of important things to the children. I remember my pet birds as a kid. Birds are so sensitive that even a minor changes in temperature can kill them. But having them was a great learning experience - of course I was only able to realize this fact in my adulthood.
Although I have never adopted any hamsters before but I have read and seen enough about them to know that if nothing else, they know how to take care of themselves. Thus I would say that its probably safer to have them as pets than birds because of their oversensitive biological makeup.
I have to say that I have never kept birds, so I wouldn't know on that one. I do get requests quite often for a tarantula, but I have said she get whatever pet she likes when she has her own house!
Yeah. Hamsters can be trouble makers. All my childhood long I had hamsters as pets. I still remember making them cool stuff out of lego, like mazes and cars.
That is an awesome idea, I will get the girls to make things out of lego for them to play with. Thank you.
Houdini?!
I've seen that word before... looks up the word... Wow!! A fascinating choice!!
I don't know if I wanted a Hamster but when I was a child I wanted a cat, my mother don't like being near animals (not hating them, just don't want them in the house) so even when stray cats use our home for shelter, they're gone by the end of the week. (I don't know why they loved our house though.)
I would love a cat or a dog as well, but unfortunately, our landlord won't allow it.
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