Goin' On a Mouster Hunt....

My husband made a comment this evening about how we have suddenly become animal lovers because we suddenly have so many dang animals in our house. 1 temporary Gecko, a dog, and 5 hamsters....well we did have 5...

It is what every parent who allows a rodent into their home dreads. You go to check on said rodent (in our case rodentS) and it is missing, yes....MISSING!!!

Brenna had just returned home from her wonderful adventure in Virginia to find one of her furry friends absent from its home. We searched all over. These hamsters have escaped before, but that was because we thought a guinea pig cage made a good home. So....we looked, and looked, and looked some more...no 'mouster'.

The rest of the family had given up, I was still poking around. I was checking the caller ID in my husband's office when I heard some faint scratching coming from the air vent in the floor. I shined a flashlight down there, but couldn't see anything, so I went down to my craft room which is directly underneath. I was listening for more scratching and scurrying so that I could locate where the hamster was hidden. As I walked over to flip on the light, I saw a set of whiskers sticking out of our air intake/furnace setup....

Can you say "lucky"???? She still was having an incredibly hard time getting out of the hole, so we had to enlarge it a bit and pull back the sharp edges with a pair of needlenose pliers. I went up and grabbed her baby, some food, and of course...my camera! I was able to coax her out with her baby and the food bowl, which she gladly jumped into!


So....I have absolutely no idea how long she had been missing, or WHO helped her into her predicament. Noone in my house is 'fessing up. I am just grateful she was easy to find and that I didn't have to 'smell' her out if she ended up dying in our vents..................ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww...that would have made scrapping extremely unpleasant!

Peese Muster??

cBrenna is hamster obsessed. She has been begging for months for us to let her get a hamster. Never mind that her mother is violently allergic to most rodents, she wanted one! After listening to her finageling and various promises, we finally caved. Rob did his shopping homework and found a lady doing pet rescue who was giving away some 'adorable dwarf hamsters'....and they were sexed so that you would not end up with more. What a deal!

So, on a lovely spring day in April, I went to go pick up a hamster. When I got to the house, the lady answered the door, and she was in tears, she had just had to put a cat to sleep and was profusely apologizing about her emotional state. I have been accused a time or two of being too soft hearted, and I couldn't resist giving her a hug and telling her it would be alright. She was a very lovely person and an avid animal lover, her house was full of pets of all kinds. After talking with her awhile, she went down to get the hamsters. She came back up with a cage containing 4 hamsters. They were very small, fluffy, and adorable. I couldn't pick just one. I think the pet lady capitalized on my indecision and told me if I took all 4, I could have the cage as a long term loaner. I was sold and toted the furballs home.

Naturally, the kiddos were obsessed and the hamsters got way overindulged. Quentin was the most intrigued and was into them nonstop. Quentin is way adorable for a 2 1/2 year old and he is gaining quite the vocabulary and his own unique way of pronouncing things. Now, he is my fourth child, and you would think that after going through three other toddlers that I would have the 'toddler speak' thing down.......ummmmmmmmm.....nope.

For three solid days, Quentin would come to me and grab my hand..."peese musters mommy? Musters?" What? You want mustard? How odd..... It wasn't until I was toting a load of folded clothes upstairs to the boys room, that I got it. Quentin was in his sisters room, holding a hamster under her supervision, and laughing gleefully. He saw me, held up the hamster and said,"Wook mommy, muster!!!"
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! That's what you meant!!