The Day the Wall Almost Ate My Hamster

Sure, Fuzz has one of those cute little hamster balls to roll around in (pink, of course, what else?). But sometimes I take her to a safe place and let her just roam around freely.

This almost ended in tragedy the first time.... when I let her out in my bathroom without remembering I had a glue trap behind the toilet, to catch spiders (but it would work for catching hamsters, too). Until she went behind the toilet and I freaked out and threw the trap away.

Other times have gone better, but we haven't returned to my bathroom because of the bad memories. Today, though, I decided to let her run around for a bit in there while I was getting ready. I did a sweep of the room first to check for horrible surprises like forgotten glue traps, but I was confident that everything was hamster-proofed and hamster safe.

So I let Fuzz out, and she runs around happily. And within two minutes... she runs up to just underneath my bathroom cabinet, in the very corner against the wall. She stands up to sniff something. The next thing I know, she's climbing UP into something, and then she's gone. I naively open the cabinet, thinking she may have gotten in there somehow.

Nope. That's when I discovered a lovely little hole on the underside of the cabinet, opening up into a random chunk of space in between the cabinet and the wall. It was just the right size for a hamster to squeeze through, but I had no way to get in there and no idea what was back there.

I may have... panicked. A little bit. Pictures of Fuzz getting trapped forever came to mind, and I wondered how much it would cost to rip that wall apart and put it back together again. I could hear her running around in there but I had no idea what she was getting into.

So I ran and got a handful of food and held it to the hole, calling her name. She did not reappear. I wondered if she would even be able to climb back out. Okay... clearly, I needed a... a hamster ladder. Yeah. Something I could lower through the hole that she could climb up. Did I have anything like that? I poured the food back into her food bag and looked around. Not seeing any immediate options, I tried to fit my hand down the hole. I got two fingers in. And right away I could feel Fuzz's nose and whiskers brush against my fingers, sniffing me.

I stood up and started digging through my toileteries. Would a comb work? No, how would I even fit that inside? Maybe... a pony tail ring?

Then I looked down, and there was Fuzz, grooming herself on the rug. I think she smelled food on my hand and that inspired her to come out.

I was spazzing, and she was totally calm and happy about her little adventure. Is this what my parenting will be like? I promptly scooped her up and got her back into her cage.

Moral of the story: Unless you have gotten down on a hamster's eye level and looked all around... you do not know if somewhere is hamster proof.