Saturday was over before we got everything moved, so we made a trip to the house first thing Sunday morning. Princess was still at the apartment, so Brandi checked her out first thing, and gave her food and water. I think I even stuck my hand in there for a second. Then we loaded the trailer up with another load, and headed to the house.We unloaded, then headed back to the apartment. By this time, Junior's friend Duane was there, loading up some stuff that Junior had given him. I unlocked the front door, left it open, and started loading more stuff onto the trailer. About 20 minutes later, Duane left, so Junior and the kids came inside to help me. Kasi walked into the kitchen, and asked, "why is princess' cage open?".
My heart sunk. Sure enough, the little critter figured out how to open the door on her cage, and she was gone. Brandi was instantly hysterical as the rest of us went on a hamster hunt. Now, the front door had been open for about 20 minutes, so we weren't hopeful that we would find her, but we looked for about half an hour.
Nothing.
So Junior unhooked the trailer, and off we went to Petco. The whole way there, all I kept thinking was how unfair it was that this had to happen to Brandi. She was already upset and stressed about changing schools; she didn't need this.
We get to the pet store, and find out pretty quick that they are out of teddy bear hamsters.
Perfect.
She looks at the rest, and they only have three female hamsters, and to be honest, they weren't really that cute. We asked the guy who works there to let us hold one, and as he goes to stick his hand in the cage, all three try to take a bite out of him. This is not the kind of animal I want.
So the guy turns to me and asks if we would be interested in "adopting" a hamster that has been handled since birth. He said he had a few in the back that are very friendly, and we were welcome to look at them.
So we head back there, and come to find out they are dwarf hamsters, so they are pretty tiny. The guy picks one up and hands it to me, and it just sat in my hand, then climbed up to my shoulder and sat there. It was so cute! There was no question that we would take one, until Junior opened his mouth.
"Let's get 2", he says.
Of course Brandi is loving that idea, so she picks out two of them, and we are ready to go. Or so I thought. Since Princess got out of the cage we have, I didn't want to put these guys (yes, they are boys, oh well) in there. Luckily we had an old snake cage, and all it needed was a lid.
And a water bottle, because the one we had hangs in the wire of the cage, and wouldn't work in a glass cage.
And a wheel, because again, the wheel we had attached to the cage, and wouldn't work on it's own.
And then we found the cutest little wood house, and I just couldn't resist.
$50 and three hours later, (we stopped for lunch, too) we headed back to the apartment. I told Brandi she had to stay in the van with the hamsters, and she couldn't get out for any reason. This was Junior's idea, because he was convinced that Princess had run outside, and he was worried the cats would find her, and Brandi just didn't need to see that.
So Ryan, Kasi, Junior and I started loading the trailer. Kasi went to get something from her room, and as she was walking down the little hallway, she yelled, "there's Princess!". Sure enough, she was headed to their closet, so Junior trapped her in there and was able to catch her. We put her in her ball, and carried it out to the van. I asked Brandi if she wanted the ball for the boys, and when she said yes, I handed her the ball. When she saw princess inside she lost it again.So now we have three hamsters, and they have to stay in separate cages. We can't put Princess in with the boys for two reasons. One, we don't want babies, and two, she is about five times bigger than they are. So now the boys are in the glass cage, and Princess is in her cage, but Junior fixed it so that she can not get the lid off.
And the good news? I get to clean the cages every week. So we all win!
