Our first pets July 7, 2014

It's Decker's 6th birthday and our friends called and asked if we wanted a couple of hamsters for pets?  I thought, that would be a fun birthday present.  I love hamsters...let's go for it!  So we went and picked them up.  They are brothers, just like Decker and Cody.   Cody named his Bumpers and Decker named his Ticklish.

We made a a maze with our legos and put the hamsters in.  It took the hamsters a few minutes to figure out that they could climb over the legos.  We also got an empty toilet paper roll for them to crawl through.  Funny how their body's stretch out so long.

We even made a little window for them to peek their heads out.

This is Sarah, the boys babysitter.  She has a hamster pet too.  Though she is scared to hold them and getting bit.

one night the boys were holding the hamsters and then one of them bit Decker...instead of putting him back in his cage, Decker just let him go since he was watching a cartoon and didn't want to be interupted.  When we came inside, I asked them where their hamsters were.  Decker said,  "I don't know"  So the race ensued to find the little guy.  We said prayers to find him, put out food trails, we covered the hole under the kitchen sink.  I was afraid he went into the duct system of the house and he would die, rot and then our house was going to smell of dead hamster...That evening I was in our bedroom coming out of the bathroom and I see the little guy run out from under our bed.  Yay!  I caught him and put him safely back in his home.  We had a talk that hamsters aren't like dogs or cats that come when you call them...not okay to let them roam the house.  Lessons learned of having pets.

Grandma Wood texted me her version of that evening too.  Thought it so funny had to share...  "No kidding what a surprise! Poor Bumpy must have been so frightened in his new habitat.  Hate to say this......I thought Bumpy was squished in the couch........Bumpy knows the safest place in the house and best place to hide is in Mom and Dad's room under the bed. This sounds like a CHILDRENS' FRIEND story. .....and everyone in the family tried to locate poor, frightened Bumpy.  Dad grumbled that the cage and second gerble would have to be returned to the previous owners. Mom swept the floor under the kitchen appliances, looking in cupboards, and in corners.  Younger brother, Cody, asked for a bowl of Grape Nut Flakes and milk. Cody was hungry from looking so intensely for lost Bumpy. Auntie K checked the internet for ways to find a lost gerble. Grandma scooted on the living floor looking under the sofa, end table and rocking chair. Decker told the family he had prayed to find Bumpy when Bumpy was first missing.    I don't know the rest of the story.......It reminds me of a MOG esk ish story. "

The hamsters lived with us for a couple of months.  They died about a week within each other and we buried them in our backyard on top of each other.  The boys were heartbroken by the loss of their friends.  We will trying having a pet again in a few...