So, I am sleeping in the basement guest room at Tara's, alone now that Tom is back in Quesnel till Friday. Or at least, I was alone until just after midnight Tuesday morning.
I woke up to a very dark bedroom. Even sleeping with my door open, there is minimal light available downstairs. I thought I heard a paper rustle on the floor, so I listened really hard for about a minute and there was nothing. About 10 minutes later I hear it again. This time it had moved across the end of the room where my suitcases are, and was in the corner rustling some paper there. Rodents! OMG, Tara has mice! OMG NOW WHAT DO I DO?
With my heart pounding, I wait for another noise and sure enough it is moving up the side of the room! I swing across the bed and head for the light - thinking about how I will have to put my foot down on the carpet and who knows what else may be down there? OK - BE BRAVE! I step down and lean way over and hit the light. At the same time I move into the doorway so I can make a run for it if they charge!
Charge? Nope! A dark black rodent is sitting up staring at me from the side of the room. He is sitting on my heating pad that is resting on our empty packaway, and he has the nerve to be looking really friendly! Now I know that Daphne's hamster is upstairs in its cage and couldn't possibly be down in my room - right? Ok, I have to go get Tara or Dale. I have to - what else will I do all night? Sit on my bed with the lights on and sing CumBuyYah?
Now Tara had been up 4 times the previous night with a sick and demanding dog. She had to work and was exhausted when she went to bed. I really didn't want to be the next nightime problem, but what else was I going to do? So I shut the bedroom door and head upstairs to the hallway and call out quietly (so as not to wake Daphne) for either Tara or Dale. When Tara lifts her head I tell her that there is a mouse like creature in my bedroom. (Now, even I heard the hysterical laughter in my high voice when I told her the 2nd and 3rd time.) She finally woke Dale and told him he had to go downstairs and "deal" with the "mouse".
I am still a bit hysterical, but I follow my great hunter down the stairs and into my bedroom. As Dale opens the door, the hairy monster is right inside, not 10" from the doorway. Dale bends down and placing the empty plastic raspberry container he grabbed on the way down the stairs, he calls out quietly "Come on Chowder. Come get in." It was Daphne's hampster!
Still giggling in a high pitched tone, I follow Dale up the stairs to the, now, empty hamster cage and watch Chowder hop back into his bed.
We know how the hamster got out of the cage - his bed cover was not snapped down tight after Daphne cleaned the cage out Monday morning. But, since a picture is worth a 1000 words, I am posting a pic of the metal 'baker's shelf' where the cage is place on the top of the 6 foot stand. We all wish we could have filmed how that little hamster made it down the shelving unit, out of the dining room, through the kitchen past the sleeping dog in her kennel, down the stairs (we think he used the "rails" along the steps), past the open family room door and the furnace room with laundry and bathroom, down the hallway to the open bedroom door where I was peacefully asleep in my bed!
Now this is a small hamster! You would think an adventure like this would be exhausting! Not so for our adverturous soul. He continued to run in his wheel and toys for at least another half hour before I finally could settle down and sleep. Did Chowder sleep then? We really don't know. But what I do know is that there is a heavy heavy box on top of the cover on Chowder's bed tonight. I SLEEP ALONE.
