The Great Escape
Pepper escaped her cage again at some point between 2am and 9am. Since I'd had a drink (New year) I didn't wake up when I heard the resulting crashing.
But let's start from the beginning. Pepper is, I've decided, a lot more intelligent than a hamster should be. She's been renamed evil Morgana, Khan, Smaug... There are plenty of reasons for each of these. Her cage is in fact two cages joined together, in the hope that it would stop her chewing/trying to escape/making loads of noise. It didn't work. She knows how to open the doors, so they're all tie-wrapped up to prevent her from being able to open them. There's cardboard in front of one of them to stop her clashing it. Not that it helps.
Somehow, she'd managed to push so hard against the door that she's unwound the tie-wrap and jumped down, giving her free run of the room until I'd woken up.
Now, when I did wake up, I could hear her chewing and assumed she was under the fishtank (Pep, Queen under the Fishtank - she likes it there - goes under when I let her run around if she has a hissy fit about being in the ball). But once I grew sick of the chewing and was willing to risk my fingers to get her out, I quickly realised she wasn't there. And it sounded as though she was in the skirting board.
This, naturally, is bad. There's only one way to get there - the radiator - and I didn't know whether or not she could a) find her way back, or b) get out. So I spent half of the afternoon tapping my way around her room and baiting the area to get her back out. She ignored me. And shut up. I put a light at the hole for her to get out, dropped a hamster ladder down in case she couldn't scurry back up, everything. No hope.
I went downstairs at teatime, thinking she'd come out when I wasn't there, but kept checking up on her. I'd left the cage open so she could get a drink if she came out and food on the floor to tempt her out. But there was nothing. I watched Atlantis after Sherlock and went to bed after that. Still nothing. I was talking to my boyfriend, near enough crying my eyes out, because I was convinced something terrible had happened to her - she'd gotten lost or stuck or wandered off to another part of the house and couldn't get back. I lay awake until 1am, where I fell asleep in my misery.
20 past 1 this morning I heard a noise in her cage, and there she was, bold as brass and covered in dust. So I hopped out of bed and closed the doors on her, thanking anyone that was listening that she was back and wanting nothing more than to kiss her (but if I did, she'd bite my face off).
So, for the rest of the night, I had to listen to the tantrum. Because she's a hamster, she doesn't care how worried I was about her, or how much danger she could have been in. She was having a great adventure, wandering around, and I'd spoiled that. So she was walking around the cage, rubbing against where the doors where, hitting the bars with chews and trying to push out the weak spots. Then she started chewing. I have no idea what she was chewing, but she was chewing something. I'm sure I'll find out soon enough.
I'm so glad she's back, but by god, she's a little twat. Didn't get a wink of sleep until 9am this morning, when she scared me half to death by shutting up and I thought she'd escaped again. She hadn't; she'd just gone to sleep. But she's an absolute genius so it's hard to say.
Anyway, thanks for coming back, Pep. I dunno what I'd do without you. And I'll handle extra-fortifications on the cage and no sleep to know you're safe.
This is #evilhamsterproblems, welcome to my world.
Ay
But let's start from the beginning. Pepper is, I've decided, a lot more intelligent than a hamster should be. She's been renamed evil Morgana, Khan, Smaug... There are plenty of reasons for each of these. Her cage is in fact two cages joined together, in the hope that it would stop her chewing/trying to escape/making loads of noise. It didn't work. She knows how to open the doors, so they're all tie-wrapped up to prevent her from being able to open them. There's cardboard in front of one of them to stop her clashing it. Not that it helps.
Somehow, she'd managed to push so hard against the door that she's unwound the tie-wrap and jumped down, giving her free run of the room until I'd woken up.
Now, when I did wake up, I could hear her chewing and assumed she was under the fishtank (Pep, Queen under the Fishtank - she likes it there - goes under when I let her run around if she has a hissy fit about being in the ball). But once I grew sick of the chewing and was willing to risk my fingers to get her out, I quickly realised she wasn't there. And it sounded as though she was in the skirting board.
This, naturally, is bad. There's only one way to get there - the radiator - and I didn't know whether or not she could a) find her way back, or b) get out. So I spent half of the afternoon tapping my way around her room and baiting the area to get her back out. She ignored me. And shut up. I put a light at the hole for her to get out, dropped a hamster ladder down in case she couldn't scurry back up, everything. No hope.
I went downstairs at teatime, thinking she'd come out when I wasn't there, but kept checking up on her. I'd left the cage open so she could get a drink if she came out and food on the floor to tempt her out. But there was nothing. I watched Atlantis after Sherlock and went to bed after that. Still nothing. I was talking to my boyfriend, near enough crying my eyes out, because I was convinced something terrible had happened to her - she'd gotten lost or stuck or wandered off to another part of the house and couldn't get back. I lay awake until 1am, where I fell asleep in my misery.
20 past 1 this morning I heard a noise in her cage, and there she was, bold as brass and covered in dust. So I hopped out of bed and closed the doors on her, thanking anyone that was listening that she was back and wanting nothing more than to kiss her (but if I did, she'd bite my face off).
So, for the rest of the night, I had to listen to the tantrum. Because she's a hamster, she doesn't care how worried I was about her, or how much danger she could have been in. She was having a great adventure, wandering around, and I'd spoiled that. So she was walking around the cage, rubbing against where the doors where, hitting the bars with chews and trying to push out the weak spots. Then she started chewing. I have no idea what she was chewing, but she was chewing something. I'm sure I'll find out soon enough.
I'm so glad she's back, but by god, she's a little twat. Didn't get a wink of sleep until 9am this morning, when she scared me half to death by shutting up and I thought she'd escaped again. She hadn't; she'd just gone to sleep. But she's an absolute genius so it's hard to say.
Anyway, thanks for coming back, Pep. I dunno what I'd do without you. And I'll handle extra-fortifications on the cage and no sleep to know you're safe.
This is #evilhamsterproblems, welcome to my world.
Ay