The Hamster has escaped

Thor Hamsterdal took it upon himself to break out of jail last night. I now have a bucket with seeds and a ramp, a smaller cage with some bedding that has his scent deployed in the hall, a hefty bag laid out in the living room with a light dusting of flour on it surrounding his favorite hiding/burrowing box.... and as of yet, still no hamster.

Have checked literally every inch of baseboards in the house, and there is no escape for the little guy that way. He can't get under the front door (the only way in or out). Looked under every bed and item of furniture with a flashlight (oh, my back!). Still no hamster.

Is it true they can go stealth mode (invisible) when they want to?


Arrrrrrgh. Where is the blasted hamster..........

Oh NO! 

Don't know about invisible but they can go really flat. I really hope you find him soon.

Thanks. So do I.  I did check the front door, and the weatherstripping is such that he should not be able to get out.   If he doesn't turn up in a couple of days we'll put a wanted poster down at the front door, just in case.

This is the first Syrian hamster we've had and he's way more of a problem-solver than the Winter White/Campbells dwarf hamsters I've had over the years.  For the dwarf hamsters you just leave a live-catch trap with a carrot in it for bait and it works every time - if they don't just walk up to you. 

Thor was madly trying to get out of his cage last night, not sure what was up. He was clawing at every corner, hopping up and down, not sure what that was about. He toodled in his hamster ball for a while, madly, all over the place, but didn't want to come back out of it when we tried to put him back in his casa.  Checked the cage, it's clean (more or less) and well-stocked.  He appears to have scaled the frame on his wheel, and then slid the mesh that was covering the bin to one side - neat trick as it had some heavy books holding it down.  (He's getting a regular barred cage when he is back from his bender!) He then would have fallen close to two feet to the floor - which worries me more. I thought I heard a squeak late last night, but then decided it was some noise from outside, probably. (Apparently not. I hope he's not injured.)

So, I'll be up all night until I find the Daughter's damned hamster. A goldfish woulda been easier.

Come back Thor!

Wanna borrow a cat?  He’s 17, has no claws, virtually no teeth, and doesn’t walk in a straight line....  he’d be useless!   

Hah. I said "yes" to that one once before. When Caligula the Hamster escaped, we had a cat that was just a hair under 21 years of age. She still had claws and teeth, but rarely moved and was pretty much deaf. In the middle of the night I heard her doing a muffled yowl, and she brought in the hamster to me, up on my bed. But, of course, would then not let it go.... 

Not a mark on the poor thing, but obviously had internal injuries as it didn't last much longer than that. Our theory is that Caligula was cornered, and true to his nature (he was an evil little thing) he would have given the cat the hamster equivalent of a middle-finger salute and said "bite me".  Which she then did. 

Thor usually gets active around 9pm, so we'll see what happens when he wants food or water.

If anything, Sobe would sit in your lap and purr.  Thus making Thor jealous and he would wander out to safe keeping.   

I miss having a cat.  But I think the Daughter has developed an allergy to them.

Otherwise, I'd borrow Sobe!

Suggestion from DH: check your sofa and bed. Perhaps he's burrowed in cushions or bedding.

Note that DH has never owned a hamster, but he is good at thinking outside the box.

Any news yet?

I panic when I can't find one of my (indoor) cats even when I know I haven't been outside so they can't possibly be either. Sooo much worse for you with such a tiny critter.   

All clear! He waddled out of wherever he was sleeping all day and into the aux. cage and started munching on a bit of carrot. I assume he was hungry and thirsty.  He is now safely in his bin, and we are ordering an extra-large, very-small bars cage for him in a few hours so he can have his wheel and toys back again. He showed up at about 10:30pm.  We had blocked off all the rooms with boxes (still not totally unpacked) and the cage was in the hall, so we are assuming he squeezed in under the hall closet door and was in there behind all the stacked, folded boxes all day.

Daughter had not realized how upset she was that he was AWOL, but after he turned up we were both doing the post-adrenaline thing. I slept like a log and she's still sleeping.   Just walked to the corner store for bread and milk and it's a darned bit nippy out there today!  I guess winter is inevitable now. So all is well.

On the good side, he was letting us handle him a lot without protests and was seeming to enjoy being petted for an extended period of time. That's a first.

I still think a goldfish woulda been easier.

Hooray! Hamster is found!   

Lovely that he is appreciating you a little more too!

How about a pet rock?  Very low maintenance.

Woohoo! Glad he showed up.

Maybe his little adventure has made him appreciate you two a little more if he's not protesting being held.

Sounds an exciting, edge-of-your-seat adventure.  A tail (ahem) of plucky Brit-ish daring-doo.  I think it a movie should be made about it, to be broadcast on Christmas Day after the Queen's Christmas Address..

"Next on ITV, The Hambusters.."

With a dorky theme song, like they have for the Archers.  Or something military-sounding, like Monty Python (The Liberty Bell March). Or....


 [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBjUh4bYF8w[/youtube]


Can we get Tom Hiddleston in the production somehow? 

Seriously, I didn't know they were problem solvers. He had to move his rather sizeable wheel rig over to the side of the cage, then pile all his bedding up around it so that it would not spin, and then get up to the top and wedge into the mesh (that had a rather heavy cookbook weighing it down) and like shove to get it to slide open an inch so he could weasel [uh, "hamster"?] out of there.

He's going to be disappointed if he wants to go walkies tonight - we have a cookie sheet and five books up there, and he now has minimal bedding in the bin to use for building purposes.  Come Wednesday or Thursday, he'll be in Sing Sing.

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00OFPLT92/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


[Had a pet rock once. 1977, I think. It came in a little paper carrier, on straw, with care instructions. It promptly died.     ]