Have you heard "The Hamster, the Elephant and the Whale

[babyboos]

One day Hammy the Hamster was taking a walk through the jungle collecting Sunflower Seeds when he ran into Elephant, who was making a fine meal of the treetops.



"Hello, brother," said Hammy. "Fine day, isn't it?"



Elephant paused to look down at the tiny little creature at his feet and snorted. "Leave me be, hamster. I don't have the time to waste on someone so small." Hammy was shocked to be talked to in such a manner. He wasn't sure what to do so he left quietly to go and think about what had happened.



As he walked along, he spied mighty Whale far out to sea and decided to ask her what she thought about Elephant's rudeness. He cupped his tiny paws and yelled as loud as he could, "Whaaaaale!! Come heeeeere!!" Whale swam over to see who was calling her and looked about. After a few minutes she spied tiny little hamster jumping up and down on a cliff. "Hamster," Whale said impatiently, "Did you just call me over here?" "Of course," said Hammy. "Just who do you think you are? You are far too small and weak to have anything to say to me."



And at that she turned, flipped her huge tail, and set off back into the deep ocean. But just then Hammy the Hamster had an idea. He called out to her one more time, "Whale! You think that I am weak, but in fact, I am stronger than you! You wouldn't be so quick to ignore me if I beat you at Tug-of-War." Whale looked at him for a moment before falling into a fit of laughter. "Very well little one," said Whale. "Go get a rope and we will see who is stronger."



Hammy ran off to gather up the strongest and thickest vine he could. When he found it, he went to Elephant and said to the giant animal, "Elephant, you had no cause to treat me with such discourtesy this afternoon. I shall have to prove to you that we are equals." Elephant looked down between chews and chuckled. "And how will you do that, small one?" Hammy stood up as high as he could, looked Elephant right in the eye and said, "By beating you at a game of Tug-of-War." Elephant laughed so hard he nearly choked on his leaves, but agreed to humour the tiny animal. He tied the vine around his huge, hefty waist, snickering the whole time. Hammy the Hamster took the other end and started off into the jungle. He called back to Elephant, "Wait until I say `pull' and then pull with all of your might."



Hammy took the other end of the rope to Whale and said, "Tie this to your tail and when I say `pull' you swim with all of your might." Whale tied the vine to her tail, all the while smirking at Hammy the Hamster's foolishness. "I will now go and tie the other end to my own waist," said Hammy, and ran off into the jungle...



Hammy the Hamster hid in the bushes and then called out, at the top of his lungs, "PULL!!"



Elephant started to walk away with a smile on his face, but the smile soon turned to a look of surprise when the vine stopped following him. "My goodness," he said to himself, "Hammy the Hamster is much stronger than I expected!" The look of surprise soon became a frown as Elephant pulled harder and harder, unable to make the tough vine budge any further.



Meanwhile, Whale began to swim away from the shore, but almost lost her breath when the vine pulled tight and refused to come with her. She pulled harder and harder, but she could not pull it any further. "That little hamster could not possibly be stronger than me," she said in outrage.



Soon the vine could take no more strain and, with an ear-splitting sound, snapped into two pieces. When this happened, poor Elephant went sailing through the jungle and tumbled head over heels down a steep valley. Bump, bump, ouch, ouch...



The end that was tied to Whale caught up to her suddenly and she went sailing through the ocean and smashed into a very scratchy and very uncomfortable coral reef. Hammy left without a word and never mentioned the matter again.



Elephant and Whale were completely confused and never did figure out how such a tiny creature as Hammy the Hamster could have beaten the largest of the animals. And to this day, they are very careful to greet little the hamster with great respect, whenever they meet.





Adapted from an old Mauritian proverb for your amusement

[carefresh]

That was a great story ! Very amusing !

[amnerisryn]

Woot! =D>

[SnuggleHam]

Interesting.. I'm trying to figure out the moral of the story here and all I can come up with is that you shouldn't listen to a hamster, they will trick you :P

[Coco1]

LOL good one!

[Emma]

Or hamsters are clever little things which we all knew!



Babyboos what was the little animal originally - or do they have hamsters in Mauritius ?!?

[babyboos]

I think it was a rabbit but it is so long ago since I was told this story I can't really remember I don't think you would get either there so not sure what it possibly could be...

[peanut25]

That story is just to cute. They are definately smart and don't like it if you pretend to ignore them. They always get my attention.

[hammydude]

Originally Posted by Candace

Interesting.. I'm trying to figure out the moral of the story here and all I can come up with is that you shouldn't listen to a hamster, they will trick you :P

Very funny Great story Babyboos!

[babyboos]

Originally Posted by Candace

Interesting.. I'm trying to figure out the moral of the story here and all I can come up with is that you shouldn't listen to a hamster, they will trick you :P

Don't underestimate a hamster - they only pretend to be daft :P