Earlier today the 3 youngest kids and one of the boy’s friends were playing hide and seek.  The boy shrieked ‘I’ve just seen a mouse in the spare room’ – which made everyone come out of their hiding places – but he wasn’t that insistent about it, so we assumed he was just being a knob (not unheard of!!)

However, about 2 hours later, middle daughter realised the tube attached to her hamster’s cage was actually not attached any more.  She claimed she’d seen Oreo (he’s brown and white – you’d never have guessed would you?) earlier that morning – so we didn’t think he could have got far.  But the back door had been open quite often – so we feared he could have gone to play with the rabbits and guinea pigs outside (parent code for – disappeared forever….)  Much searching of the family room, where the cage was sited,  ensued – but there was no evidence of an errant hamster.

At this point we thought that maybe the ‘mouse’ sighting from earlier in the day wasn’t such baloney – but that would have involved the hamster covering 20 odd metres – plus a flight of a dozen stairs – all without being noticed.

Some investigations in the spare room found Oreo under a chest of drawers having eaten through quite a chunk of carpet!  Still not entirely sure how he made it up there – I wonder if he had assistance from those cheeky Elves?!?  But he is now safely ensconced back in his cage.

*Actually a hamster