Yeah we've had escapes... Scamps got out of her cage twice, fortunately didn't get far either time, but did give me a heart attack when I woke up to rustling plastic, got up to move the bag away from her cage... And realised that actually the rustling wasn't anywhere near the cage, so she must be out of the cage causing it... Swore rather loudly and promptly turned the light on before collecting Scamp, who luckily didn't mind being returned to her cage at all. I then made sure I fixed what had let her escape lol
Was the night before an exam too, so ended up sitting that with a lot less sleep than planned, but it worked out in the end.
The second time I was next to where she escaped, so got her back fast, and learnt my lesson about not blocking the water bottle hole in her bus carry case (we used to attatch it to her cage).
Much more concerningly though... Whizz has escaped twice! A roborovski hamster... And the most scared of humans its possible to be... Escaping... It was not good.
The first time I accidentally let her when getting her out, and er... it took about 2 hours to get her back... Most of the time spent with one trying to bribe her into her ball and the other blocking off as much of the room around her as possible to keep her in an enclosed space. We also had to move one wardrobe (we have two that're quite thin and squareish) and tilt the other at an absurd angle for ages after Whizz found a way under it...
The second time was less than two weeks ago. We put all the dwarves in their runs (in the living room with the door shut as a sensible precaution), and Scamp in her ball (in the kitchen with the door shut), while we sorted out caging when getting back from being away... I walked into the living room after getting all the cages into the flat, and found Whizz there staring at me from outside her run. Shut the door behind me very quickly, realised my Whizz-proofing had needed redoing on her run, and then Alex had to help me get her back.
Got very lucky and had her back within 15 minutes because she focused on avoiding Alex, while I moved a box to block off part of the room and stayed close ready to grab it - she went in, I got lucky and tipped it up fast enough to trap her.
On the bright side though, it was before we got Muffin, so only one escaped
If she ever gets out of the run again she'll lead Muffin off with her, so fortunately the lesson has been well learnt and I'm redoing the run-proofing much more carefully before Whizz and Muffin get near theirs next lol
Am glad you got Winter back ok in the end