Hello from Montreal

[Mistouflette]

Hello everyone! So very nice to meet you all! I warn you, I'm a chatty one I'm in (but not from) Montreal, where I live with my boyfriend and two cats, three birds and one hamster!

My history with rodents started way back when I was young... One day, as I was walking through the garden, I found my cat playing with a very frantic small mouse, and so I stepped in and rescued her. My cat was quite put out at being deprived of her dinner and wouldn't stop following me, so I ran away with the mouse in my hands to the house. The mouse didn't understand I was trying to help her and was struggling quite a lot, until she got fed up and bit me. I, in turn, being cruel and ignorant as only a child can be, put her under some running water, because I guess my younger mind was thinking she needed to be taught a lesson? Also, she was quite dirty. I remember I instantly felt guilty at seeing my poor little mouse shivering and in shock, and that was the first time I became aware of life and death, and that I was responsible for this little being, now that I had saved her. I quickly dried her off and then wrapped her in some paper towels and fabrics to adsorb the moisture. I carried her over to the couch and laid down on it with my hand holding her close so she could get warm. The little mouse was quite still (sadly, my 'lesson' had been learned) but after a while, she actually grew quite comfortable and didn't struggle at all. We both fell asleep on that couch, and when I woke up a few hours later, I was amazed to see that she was still there and not at all fearful of me. And so, she had bitten me, I had drenched her in water, and a friendship was born She would sleep with me, I would make up amazing mazes all over my room so she could have fun, and we had the most amazing week together.

Now -this is the sad part-, during that week I was begging and begging my parents for a cage of some sort to keep her in, but they never agreed, and on the Friday, after having played with my mouse for hours, I went out with my mom to buy some shoes. I had left my little mouse in a wooden drawer I had covered with something (a large book, perhaps?). You can see where I am going with this... When I came back, the mouse was gone. I never knew the full story, my Dad said that he had thrown her over the hedge because my room was very messy (I too, apparently, needed to be taught a lesson), but I suspect instead that my cat somehow got into my room and got her long-awaited dinner. I will never know, but I remember that I spent days afterwards looking through the field next door, braving my fear of snakes (my parents told me there were snakes in there.... I was a child, I completely believed them), looking for my little mouse. And I spent the following years asking for a mouse, and then a hamster, but I was never allowed.

And then I grew up, and hamsters finally became a part of my life. But that is a story for another time, as this post is growing quite long already. I guess if there is one thing to remember about me, it's that I love telling stories!

I'm sure that, like me, you all have very special experiences with hamsters, or rodents in general!

[velma]

Crikey! What a start with small furries! Welcome to the forum

[Thin Lizzy]

Goodness gracious me, you can really talk lol!
The poor mouse! I think the cat got him too!
Welcome to the forum!
How are the cats with your 2 birds and hamster?

[cypher]

Hi & welcome to the forum
That is quite a story now I'm looking forward to hearing about the hamsters!

[Pebbles82]

Hello and welcome - that's a lovely story! I also wanted a pet mouse when I was about 11. A friend at school had mice and had a litter. My Mum said no. I was secretly planning to get one and keep it in a shoe box in my top drawer but bottled out lol! What is it with 11 year old girls that makes you think no-one get in (or out of) a top drawer! Are you Quebecois Canadian? Just wondered as your username is so nice and sounds a bit French.

[Piebald]

Hello that is quite a tale! I suspect the mouse disappearance was set up by your parents-- one to get you out of the house, and the other to get the mouse out of the house.

I have taken live mice away from my cats and released them. Unfortunately I subsequently read that mice are quite territorial and taking them to a strange place and releasing them is often a death sentence! On the other hand I tried releasing back into the garden and the dumb mouse got caught again! I swear it was the same one.

Waiting for your hamster stories now

[Mistouflette]

Thank you for the warm welcome everyone!!

I do tend to get a bit carried away with my stories I looove sharing them, I suspect I will be that grandma who's telling the same stories for the 15th time! (and then, I will chuck hard as rock candies at people and pinch their cheeks really hard, because it's what crazy old grandmas do, and it sounds like fun!)

This mouse stayed with me only for a short week, and yet here I am still telling people about her some fifteen years later. It's crazy how something so small can have such a big impact! But yeah, wooden top drawers = definitely not safe... Even though it was most probably a setup, it's incredible that it never crossed my mind that I had been lured away from the house on purpose... Never thought of that! But it makes a lot of sense, because I remember the 'getting new shoes' thing as being quite random! Parents

How I got my first hamster is also quite incredible, although I must admit I wasn't the most responsible person with her, and you'll see why... Back then, I was already in Montreal but still an university student. It was a quiet evening, my boyfriend was on the computer and I was watching a movie, when all of a sudden, my cat started acting really weird, jumping to and from the window, and scratching the glass. My boyfriend got up to see what was going on. He pushed the curtains aside and said "Errrr, I think there's a hamster outside" (you see, back then my apartment was at basement level). At first, I didn't believe him (how on Earth can there be a hamster outside??) but as he insisted, I finally got up and checked for myself. And sure enough, it was a quite big, quite frightened little hamster, curled up under my window! We picked it up and brought her inside, and I was quite frantic! How can it be a hamster? What happened to it? We have no food! We have no cage! WE HAVE A CAT AND WE LIVE IN A STUDIO APARTMENT!! It was almost 11pm but stores were still opened, so I rushed out to get some hamster food and whatever else I could find, telling my story to every soul along the way, hoping to get some tidbits of advice here and there. I wasn't a very resourceful person, and it never really crossed my mind to dig around on the internet, otherwise I would probably have found you guys much sooner! So I got the food, and got home to examine the little 'intruder'. He was caramel colored, and quite big, almost the size of my hand! I also realized 'he' was in fact a 'she'. I shredded what seemed like a ton of newspaper and put her for the night in my cat's carrier. The next day, I went to the pet store and bought some bedding, a few toys, a water bottle and a hamster ball. I also got a cage, I don't remember exactly which one, but it was a cheap one and probably way too small. Then, the sensible next step would have been to bring her to the vet to get her checked out, but I was a broke university student and I had already blown half of my food money on hamster stuff, so we decided to wait and see how she would do. Well, she ended up spending two years with us and I like to think that, even though I didn't really bond with her, and even though she was spending most of her time sleeping, she was still happy and comfy. I called us her retirement home!

So that's the story, and oh my, another lengthy post, even though I had promised myself to keep it short!! I'll try to link the only video I have of her, I don't know if it will work. Her name was Merlin (pet name was Merlinou) and I apologize for all the squeals you will hear in this video... That's me, and I strongly recommend you mute it, for your ears' sake lol

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v...94489942410721

[Mistouflette]

I will continue here, and I will try to keep it short!

Thin Lizzy, to answer your question, my cats are obviously quite enraptured with the birds and now the hamster, but they get their own room and the door is constantly closed so the cats can't get in :3 When I get home at 5pm, one of the first things I do is go and bring the tank in the living room, that way Bonsaï can still be with us and I can interact with him, while keeping an eye on the cats. The furniture I put the tank on is conveniently the right size, and high enough so that the cats can't jump on it, and I know they won't try because they are both quite fat and lazy kitties. The kitchen is also connected with the living room, so I can monitor everything. It's working out quite well, although I know I will have to think of something else when I get the 75 gallons tank

Serendipity, I am actually from France, currently 'exiled' to Montreal How I got my username is yet another story, but I'll keep it short for everyone's sake. There's this little known French book called 'L'année du Mistouflon' I completely adored when I was a little girl, it was about a fantasy animal called the Mistouflon (I'll put a picture). One day, we were visiting the village where the imaginary story took place, and I got to meet the author, which sent me to cloud nine (well actually, it was only the daughter of the author, but my young and impressionable mind was still in complete awe). And so my parents started calling me Mistouflette, who in the story is the girlfriend of the Mistouflon, and the nickname stuck after all these years I quite like it too!

Piebald, I didn't know that about mice! It's so hard to do the right thing for them... I would have released her too if my cat hadn't been following me around with such gluttony in her eyes!

[Thin Lizzy]

I laughed reading your post about your boyfriend saying there's a hamster outside lol! That's so bizarre!
I really thought you were going to say "there was a knock on the door" lol!
An interesting nickname!
What kind of birds do you have?

[Pebbles82]

Your English is very good and you have the nice lilting sound of one of the medieval French story tellers (I tried to read some medieval French romances once and gave up lol!). I also had to read Le Grand Mealnes in French but gave up on that too and read the translation. The grammar is so hard!

Do you have a hamster at the moment? Finding one on the window ledge must have been a shock! They are quite addictive aren't they.