Life in a box... the Great hamster escape...

The great hamster escape of 2020!

One of my old favorite movies was the Great Escape with Steve McQueen. Older movies, although not as exciting as today’s hits, still told amazing stories and I love to imagine how they would play out in today’s world. In that movie there’s an iconic scene where Steve jumps over the Nazi fence on a motorcycle. It’s even on the movie poster.

Well, a similar incident occurred this last week as my kids left for the weekend. My youngest had a hamster, a cutie pie, that she wasn’t really that interested in taken care anymore so my oldest decided to by a tank and take care of her. I was asked to check on the hamster while she was gone, so after my morning walk I went in to check on her.

To my surprise the tank was empty, I looked and looked but to no success. So, here I am, day one of hamster duty and the damn thing escaped like The Cooler King! Jumped on top of the pink house and managed to get over the top and scurry away... yelling FREEDOM!!!

I searched the home frantically for several hours, quietly listening for scratching. The last time this happened (also on a weekend my kids were gone) the little guy ended up getting caught by the dog and well... we won’t go down that road. I’m starting to think I’m not the best hamster caregiver in the world.

Three days I spent looking, only to find a small trace of poo in a corner of the guest bathroom. I’m assuming the little thing squeezed it’s way into my walls. Which bothers me for 2 reasons:

1. I hope it doesn’t die and stink up my house.

2. I just feel bad! I mean, I was the guy who was supposed to take care of it.

Point being - I’m retiring my duties as a hamster babysitter! I can’t have another death defying escape on my consequence, nor will I be responsible for the demise of my kids beloved creatures again.

(Yeah! Who am I fooling?)