Escaped hamster stories

[leedsgurl]

My first hamster when I was young (about 8 yrs old) gave me a fright on a few occasions - firstly when I found him running around on my bedroom floor (his cage was downstairs) and another time when I noticed his cage was open, but he was sleeping soundly with an elastic band next to him that he had found on his adventure and then returned with it to bed

LG
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[ameyjaney]

One of my old hamsters (I forget which one, I think it may have been Pumpkin) managed to escape and ended up down the back of my piano. Eventually we got her back safely by coaxing her with food but in the meantime it was amusing to see if the piano would play. After her adventure she was unharmed and back to her normal tricks .

[Catherine Spark]

When I was about 7 years old I got a cream banded, short-haired syrian hamster (see, I'm getting technical!) with black eyes called Holly. Apparently we had a really close bond and I looked after her very well. She hardly ever bit and instead of rushing around she bumbled about and enjoyed cuddles. One time when I was about 8 I was a bit careless and left the door open, to find she'd escaped. Luckily the room she was kept in was fairly hamster proof and we detected her under the bed, with a pile of bedding and food. My then 6 year old sister was the only one small enough to crawl under and retrieve her - and she was so gentle with her! After that Holly lived happily for another year or so until I was 9, and we went on holiday to Orkney, while a neighbour looked after her. Unfortunately despite the neighbour's excellent care, Holly escaped again and this time we never saw her again. We had two cats at the time, both good mousers... For a short while afterwards we found droppings that were significantly bigger than a mouse's, so we knew she was still alive. There was always plenty of food available in our house, hence the mice, and water was available in the from the water tank (there was a small area where there was access to it), and plenty of space in the walls. She at least had a fighting chance. We left treats out and the ladder going into her cage, but we never got her back.

Because it had not been my fault that she'd escaped, and because I had looked after her very carefully, I was allowed to choose another hamster. I chose another female cream-banded black-eyed short-haired syrian and called her Bepper. A totally different character, more inclined to nip, skittish and always running places. We didn't bond quite as much, but she had a happy life and died in her sleep at around 2 years old, whilst on her way to the food bowl.

[Lizzie]

My first hamster (about 12 years ago), Bilbo escaped from his Rotastak and we couldn't find him anywhere. We lifted the floorboards in the bathroom as my sister thought she had heard him scratching away. I left food and bedding hoping he would return. Then about a week and half after he went missing, my sister was brushing her teeth and suddenly screamed! There was Bilbo... he has burnt scabby feet from the hot water pipes but otherwise was ok.

As I was only about 10 at the time, I wrote my story down and sent to my favourite magazine at the time, Girl Talk. I got it printed in the magazine and still have a copy of the page now! Good times!

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[h3rne]

This one is very recent (last Friday).

As usual, I just put my head 'round the door of the utility room before leaving for work to find that Piccolo (one of our Syrians) had managed to pop the front door of her Cambridge and was no-where to be seen. Not a great start to a Friday 13th!

I immediately went and shut the kitchen door (as that's closed during the night so she couldn't have got further than that except underfloor or between walls). I called my wife downstairs, but a quick look around didn't turn up anything (hamster or signs thereof).

We also checked the kitchen briefly, but there seemed few places she could've gone, so we assumed she was hiding in the utility room somewhere. Unfortunately, we absolutely had to get to work, so we left a water bowl and a slice of apple on the floor of the utility room and shut both the doors.

A kind colleague agreed to meet my first commitment in the afternoon, and I rushed home for "lunch". And began gingerly removing stuff from the utility room. I looked everywhere - in the tumble-dryer vent, in the base of the freezer and under the cupboards, but there was no sign of her, including footprints in the dust. I came to the conclusion that she couldn't be anywhere in the utility room, which only left the kitchen.

The kitchen is pretty "tight" with no holes small enough for a hamster Piccolo's size around the skirting and between fittings. It then came to mind that I'd read a post on recapturing a hamster on HC some time ago (I do a lot of lurking here) that mentioned that they often head for the back of the fridge. So I got a torch and got on my belly and looked right under the fridge door. I found that there was in fact a gap at the top of the skirting big enough for Piccolo to climb through and low enough for her to reach. The skirting wasn't fixed, so I pulled it away and looked under the fridge. A movement caught my eye and I swung the torch to see Piccolo staring back at me in the torch beam.

Unfortunately, finding isn't the same as recapturing. I offered her water first, just in case I scared her into the walls (there was a big hole for wires there), but she seemd unimpressed. I tried all kinds of treats and strummed the bars of her cage to attract her, but her genetic heritage served her well and I couldn't get more than head an shoulders out from under the fridge before she'd retreat. I really didn't want to grab at her because I didn't want to get bitten and I didn't want to frighten her more. At the very least I knew she must've fallen from her worktop cage to the floor (about a metre, which is enough to cause injury).

To my relief it became clear that she seemed limited to running around at the back of the fridge and was only coming to the front across patches of floor that weren't wet. I became intrigued that some of the floor was very wet, so I dibbled my fingers in the liquid and sniffed it, scared that she might have chewed into the fridge's cooling system, but it didn't smell. I licked it. Sweet? Lemonade?! I emptied the bottom cupboard just in case there was an access way to the back and sure enough, _someone_ had chewed their way into a bottle of diet 7-up! But apparenty she had climbed up the back, over the gap between the work-top and the cupboard back and then down to the bottom shelf (there were hamster droppings as well as the chewed lemonade bottle there) and then climbed back out again. Amazing.

Finally I decided that the lack of cover was the problem, so I got her large play tube out of her cage, seeded it's length with white "chocolate" hamster treats, called her forward and offered up the tube. True to form she crawled into the tube, hoovering up the line of treats, I slipped a hand around the back and then the front and I had her! Phew!

Despite my worries about fall injuries and the effect of Diet 7-up she seems none the worse for her adventure. The only thing that's different is that her front cage door now has a tiny padlock...

[suga]

What an adventure. I am so glad you got the little fridge monster back though. I have a big wooden door fixed to the front of my cambridge - although a padlock would have possibly been less intrusive.

[Catherine Spark]

Oakie escaped from his exercise ball today! I was doing my own thing at my desk, and he was running around the floor in his ball. Suddenly I heard a noise under the desk and I looked down and there was Oakie - not surrounded by the exercise ball - heading for the crack between the desk and the wall! If he'd gone down I wouldn't have dared to move it in case I crushed him. Anyway, after recovering from the shock I picked him up and put him back in the cage, where he sat there looking all pleased with himself and doing his 'Wanna come out' look. So I put him back in his exercise ball, with a bit of sellotape for extra security.