Prudence and Madness

I found myself rearranging my stuff in the room at 7 o’clock in the morning today. And that is NOT normal. On days like this that I don’t have work, I snooze until it’s 10 a.m. and plug myself into cyberspace until sleep comes again.

But today is not a normal day anyway.

I woke up when my dad was briskly shaking me at around 6:30 a.m. I groaned in protest and turned my back on him. But I managed to open an eye at him when he said that he couldn’t find Coco, my hamster.

I wasn’t troubled at first, since my Mom almost always tells me that, only to find Coco buried in his pine shavings, with his ear barely showing through all the covering. And it’s so cute seeing him poke his head through the pine shavings and look at who’s disturbing his sleep.

But when Daddy told me that he already shifted through the pine shavings and still couldn’t find Coco, I pushed myself to get up and look at his cage. Awwww, he was able to open the porthole door on top! Spanking intelligent hamster! And now I’ve got to go hamster hunting early in the morning.

I thought of setting up a “trap” for him (erase those thoughts of cruel mouse traps from your mind). I took the clear tub I used to carry Qingzi home, removed the cover, put some lettuce leaves and carrots in it, and left it somewhere near the door of my bedroom. If Coco gets hungry, he’ll be able to sniff his way to the food stash and hopefully he’ll stay inside the tub until I get him back to his cage. I thought it’s going to be a long wait and I occupied myself with rearranging the stuff in my room, in hopes that I’d be able to shake him out of his hiding place, wherever that may be.

I didn’t actually have to wait long and the trap was unnecessary. Fifteen minutes after I’ve setup my trap, I found him scurrying under my bed. He’s going for the half-opened door! How could I forget to close it when I’ve got a hamster on the loose? I quickly closed it and well, I found Coco on the floor, seemingly disappointed that he didn’t make it to freedom. I wasn’t able to take a photo anymore, as I was in a hurry to scoop him up and put him inside his cage, before he could think of an alternative escape plan.

And yeah, I’ve got to take some precautions so that it wouldn’t happen again soon.

Sorry, Coco, if I’ve to tape you up like that. Read his post about his escape.

Yup, I know I’ve blogged about this before. But even before hammie stayed for 2 days in there, I’ve moved his hammie blog somewhere else. Hehe.

Please visit Hammiesessive in its new home.

It was only recently that I have begun taking care of hamsters as pets. I used to have guinea pigs but that was ages ago. I think I have already forgotten how it was to take care of these fancy rodents (hamsters and guinea pigs share the same Order, Rodentia, but of different suborders, the hamsters being in Myomorpha while the guinea pigs are in Hystricomorpha). But I rather miss the touch of their soft fur and their little squeaks so I’ve decided to start having these as pets again. This time, it’s hamsters.

That’s the current home of my two teddy bear hammies, Coco and Qingzi (more photos of them later). I actually started with just one cage, housing Coco and the late Pao Chi (who died for reasons that I still don’t know up to now, and probably will never know unless I consent to digging her up and performing necropsy on her). Those are plastic containers with painted metal gate rails and a plastic door on top. Then I found out that the portholes on top and on the sides are for the fancy embellishment that could be bought for the cage in the same store where I got it. It’s quite exciting that I started with one pink plastic tube to connect the original house to the second house that I bought for Qingzi. Now the two have ample space to run around and, if they’re not feeling very social, they can retreat to their own nooks and be undisturbed. And the container being plastic, it’s easy to clean and easy to assemble. It also comes with its own water bottle, exercise wheel, and food bowl. All for the price of Php 676/house, plus a pair of hamsters. The pink plastic connector tube is only for Php 40. Good deal, I’d say.
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