One night I was trying to sleep but Buttercup kept banging her food dish against her glass cage! (Her bowl's ceramic, I might mention so it made a lot of noise). So, I got up and put shavings around the dish, and moved it away from the wall. Well, I was just drifting off to sleep again when sure enough, there she went again, banging her stupid dish against the cage wall! I got up, really tired and annoyed by now, and sleepily fixed the bowl once more. I didn't notice I had stupidly left the lid off the cage, and crawled into bed once more. (By now it was about 12:30 on a Friday night so I was really tired!) Well thank God, she didn't keep banging again so I fell asleep until morning.
      When morning rolled around, I was awakened by a huge crash which seemed like it came from my closet (what the...?) so I groggily got myself up and OMIGOD! I had left the cage lid off! I frantically began searching my whole room for her when I noticed my door was open too! She could be ANYWHERE! I thought. But then, I heard some scratching in the closet and it came to a dawn! I threw open the closet door, and sure enough, there sat Buttercup in her bag of hamster stuff chewing on everything she could get her little paws on! I was so happy to see her I almost forgot how mad I was. Needless to say, she didn't get any treats for a while!
      This just shows even when you expect the worst, something good can happen! I never had to search my house that time!

The Day I Almost Lost Her

      One night, I put Buttercup in her ball to roll around downstairs while I did other things. Well I was so caught up in whatever I was doing, I forgot all about Buttercup in her ball downstairs and didn't take her out. When I finally remembered and decided to put her back in her cage for the night, I found her ball at the foot of the stairs with no hamster in it.
      I started to panic because my downstairs is really big, it's a total mess, and we have the old fashioned heating with baseboards which she could've climbed into. So I went into my dad's office, crying, and asked him to help me find her because he's good at things like that.
      ;Meanwhile, my mom was putting my two little brothers to bed and told me to be quiet. Well I got mad about that because I thought my hamster was more important than my little brothers getting a few minutes of sleep! Anyway, me and my dad went downstairs and he searched some places, and I searched others. Finally, I heard him say, "She's under the couch!" and I was so relieved I wanted to shout. So I did. And my mom got mad. But I don't care! I got to the other side of the couch and when she came running out, I grabbed her and held her to my heart tight!
      I almost didn't forive her for that night, but it's impossible to stay mad at her whenever you look at her pitiful face!

How I Taught Her to Climb the Stairs

      One time I was reading info on a hamster website when I came across 'Hamster Tricks'. In this, the girl said how she taught her hamster to climb the stairs, so I decided to try it. (see Climb the Stairs for instructions on doing this) I plopped Buttercup on a stair and waited patiently for her to climb like the instructions said. Well, when she didn't I got kind of irritated and abandoned that idea. Well, a little while from then I decided to try again. This time I put her on a different smaller staircase (I have two in my house). It took her a while and I was more patient this time, but eventually she stuck her little claws into the carpet and pulled herself up to the next stair! After a while, she had climbed every stair and I rewarded her with lots of sunflower seeds :)

Devastated by Cupcake

      On Sunday, July 27th, I was being a little too selfish. I was so excited by the possibility of getting another hamster (which I didn't) that I wasn't really paying attention to the two little blessings I already have.
      Someone my mom knows was giving away a teddy bear hammie because her daughter was allergic to the one she had just bought her and she needed to get rid of it. Unfortunately, her daughter was having trouble breathing so they had to get it out of the house before I even knew about it and had brought it back to Petco where they got it. Well I called Petco and found out that people donate hamsters and you can go and get them for free! The hamster that I wanted was already gone, but there was a dwarf and I've also wanted a dwarf for a long time so I tried to pursuade my mom into driving me 1/2 an hour there. Finally I got her to say yes if I agreed to cleaing our fish tank (yuck). But I was willing to do just about anything to get another hammie (I mean I just love them so much!) So I decided to call and make sure the hamster was still there. Well, of course it wasn't! I was so disappointed, but decided to go upstairs and play with Cupcake and Buttercup.
      Well, when I went to see Cupcake, her cage door was open and she was nowhere to be seen. Imagine this: all the time I had been trying to persuade my mom to get me another hamster, the one I had was running away and getting as far away from me as she could!
      I was devastated. This was surely the worst day (at least hamster-wise) of my life! But since it'd always been pretty easy to find Buttercup, I wasn't very worried. My dad looked all around and I did too, but we couldn't find her. I was starting to get nervous. I never found her so I put out her cage with the doors open and food all around. When I went to bed all I could think about was Cupcake and I even had a dream about her! However, when I woke up none of the food had been touched. Except she had left 2 pieces of food...
      I never found her that day either so I put out more food leading to where I had found the pieces the night before. The next morning, just as before, nothing was touched. It was that day I decided to make a book and bucket trap (see Runaways). I put food all around and I was really getting sad now. (I cried a bunch of times when she was gone). The next morning still nothing was touched. By then I was thinking I would never see her again and I was feeling so sad. However, that day things turned around.
      When I came home from a pool party that day, I heard some chewing and scratching noises around my refrigerator and cabinets next to it. It might have been a mouse because we have a mouse living there, but my mom said she's never heard it chew that early and it's really shy. I set up the the book trap down there instead of in my room in the hopes that night she would come out into the kitchen and see it. She didn't though, and we didn't find her until about 7:30 that night. Actually, my mom found her sitting in my dad's office just staring at her. I think she wanted to go home! She didn't even try to run away when I reached out to pick her up.
      Needless to say, I was really happy that day (which was Thursday the 31st)! And of course, I'm always sure to close her cage!

A Story for the Heart
By Meghan Wilson

      I had just gotten back from work and as I looked out my car window I saw that it was raining really hard outside. As I approached the house I ran inside, soaking wet from the downpour. When I entered my house I went to check on one of my hamsters October, and noticed she wasn't in her cage. I almost panicked. I searched everywhere for her, I even set up food in each of the rooms closing the doors to see if she would come. After a while all my hopes failed. I remorsefully went and sat down in the living room. There was Sundance, my Sheltie, curled up by the fire place. Totally by chance I walked over to him and there I saw October my hamster sleeping right by him!! The next day I told my vet and he couldn't believe it either. This is the story of my wonderful October. Recently October had eight beautiful hamster cubs, and it seems to me October must have told them the story too because even today October, her cubs and Sundance seem in perfect bliss and harmony together with no knowledge of that they are totally different species.