I wish I could tell you this story from the point of view of the hamster, but in the end he seemed too tired to tell me how it all happened, so you'll have to be satisfied with my side of the story.


Kevin leaves for work this morning at the usual time and I get up, shower, get dressed, do my hair and makeup, brush my teeth, put together my lunch, basically my usual Thursday morning routine. I need to get into my office before 10am because I have a meeting with my research assistants that I need to prep for before they arrive.


Since I'm a little ahead of schedule for leaving, I decide to have a seat on the couch and check my email and read a few blogs on my laptop. I pull my laptop bag over near my feet and rearrange a few things and then start reading some blogs.


Out of the corner of my eye I glimpse a bit of movement and whiteness. I don't immediately react because I often have those experiences of seeing something out of the corner of my eye and then looking and it was only a bit of dust or a weird reflection of light. But as I looked over at what had caught my attention, it seemed blurry and then it moved again. My brain did not have time for logical, conscious thought as I screamed, leapt into the air and farther back onto the couch. Whatever it was screeched itself and ran under the couch.


In my terror, my eyes shot immediately to the hamster cage (my unconscious brain, clearly smarter, and remembering that the hamster has been chewing furiously on his cage recently and we were worried about him chewing a hole in the plastic, was directing me to the solution to the puzzle). I looked and I noticed not a hole in the cage, but rather that one of the little doors on his cage was opened.


My fear for myself, quickly turned to fear for the hamster and anxiety over how was I going to capture him. I leapt off the couch for a second time, this time with more productive motivation. I grabbed the container of sunflower seeds and threw a few on the floor near the couch. Moved a bunch of shoes to block the opening underneath the door to the outside hallway of the apartment. And then got on my hands and knees and looked under the couch. Nothing.


We have a table stored underneath the couch because it fits and we have no where else for the table in the apartment. There isn't a lot of clearance between the table and couch, so I couldn't see much and it wouldn't have been a comfortable place for a frightened, hiding hamster. I ran into the kitchen and grabbed the flashlight and started shining in under the couch and the under the bookcases we have abutted to the back of the couch. The light caught two little eyes.


Fortunately, the bookcases fully touch the ground on the sides and across the front. This leaves about a two inch free space between the underneath of the bottom shelf and the floor that can be accessed from the back, which doesn't touch the floor. Fortunately, also, the hamster ran under the bookcase that was nearer to me.


I put the sunflower seeds closer to the opening between the couch and bookcase and gently tapped on the ground while calling to the hamster. He's a smart little guy, and he slowly came over to check it out. But then backed away to where I couldn't see him. I carefully slid the bookcase out on an angle keeping the far end in place, but opening the space to where I was. The hamster was still there, but kept retreating to the darkest (i.e. most hidden) part under the bookcase. After several more tries of spreading out the seeds and tapping, he again slowly made his way over still keeping under the bookcase and in (for what I can assume from his point of view) was the safety of darkness. As soon as he was a sure-thing reachable distance, I gently grabbed him. (I didn't want to try to grab him at a questionable distance and have that fail and him be more frightened of me).


In his joy (I think) to be rescued, hammie rewarded me by peeing on me. And after some kisses and telling him what a good hammie he was for letting me find him and catch him, I put him back in his cage with a bunch of yummy treats. He quickly checked to make sure the cage was the same as when he left, and then went into his sleeping pod and immediately started falling asleep. The poor little guy looked so exhausted from his adventure.


I considered for a few minutes calling out sick from work to stay home and keep an eye on the hamster. I am worried that his adventure was too much stress on his little body, but I'm hoping with a bunch of quiet time today, he'll sleep and be feeling better.


It is kind of silly to give an animal with a brain smaller than a pea too much ability to think and make decisions, but I think in some way when he first crawled over near my foot and laptop bag, that he recognized me as his caretaker and was trying to get my attention so that I would scoop him up and put him back in his home.