The Hamster Hunt

Pet ownership definitely has ups and downs in my family. Our dog, although now a valued member of the family started her puppyhood in our house by swallowing the stuffing out of some of the kids stuffed animals and ended up needing extensive x-rays and expensive surgery. The vet ‘saved’ the gross, disgusting material that he dug out of dog’s intestine to show me…. The sight and smell of the stuff is probably up there as one of my top 10 worst memories!

Our cat, a very adorable stray we rescued from an uncertain life as a barn mouser has given us trouble too. How can one little cat have worms and two different strains of viruses… one of which could be transferred to people?! After several trips to the vet, our little cat became much happier, friendlier and HUGE!! It kept gaining about a pound each week and the vet was very pleased…. to a point. Then suddenly he mentioned that the cat was becoming overweight and we should try to get him too loose a bit. (I can’t imagine taking him for walks!) I felt better when the vet’s nurse came in and secretly told me that the vet’s 2 personal cats were WAY bigger than ours!!

I’ve already mentioned the trauma with Dill’s snake in a different day’s blog….. but may the slimy little fellow rest in peace.

Now we have 5 hamsters. Gifts from Dad D’s family. One for each of our kids. I was hoping to leave them at their Dad’s house (share the wealth and all!!) But Pepper caved to the sad little kid faces that wanted to bring the little fellows to our house. This morning Lexy mentioned that the boys cage was empty…. And so was Macy’s. Peachy!!

Once the girls got home from school, they found Macy’s hamster in one of Dill’s dresser drawers (luckily Dill never puts his clothes away, so his clean clothes were not soiled… or nibbled on!) Later, Macy found Dill’s hamster behind the heaviest bookcase we own. It has way more books on its shelves then was probably ever recommended by the manufacturer… and they all had to be removed to even move the case the 3 inches required to grab the hamster, but they did get it. Well, the books hadn’t been dusted since we moved into this house (5 years ago) so I guess a little good came out of the hunt!!

We now hear little feet scratching under the refrigerator. Guess we need to move that too….. why do hamsters hide in places I don’t want to have to clean?!! Oh yes, we do love our pets here at my house! :)