Two Cats and a Hamster

Reeses, Cat #1 

Tootsie, Cat #2

and starring

Shadow the Hamster

You are probably wondering by the title what this post is about.   I wasn't  sure I was going to write a post about our crazy night our not.  When I shared on my personal Facebook page this morning what happened, a friend of mine joked it was like a sitcom at my house.  She does have a point, we have had our share of funny stories that involved our many animals.   Do you remember the time when Reeses  got stuck inside of the couch and had to be cut out?  Or when Reeses  knocked over the Christmas Tree when  all 12+ pounds of her climbed to the top?  How about the time when she knocked a different hamster's cage off the shelf when she tried to jump in the bookcase where the cage was located. (the hamster was fine, the cage not so much!)

She was involved in last night's incident too, but didn't  knock anything over, or get stuck somewhere.  

 It started around  1:30 in the morning, and I was half asleep. I heard some noise under the bed.  I tell the cat to knock it off, then realize that I see the cat, and she is not under the bed. She is also meowing.   In my half asleep state and without my glasses, I see the cat is following something small. (well smallish)  I jump up and for half a second think she is following a giant rat.. Eek!!  Then I realize it looks like a tiny guinea pig and doesn't have a long tail. Just then I realize it is our bear hamster Shadow.  The one and only time that Kara forgot to put the lid back on his cage, he somehow decided to climb out of his glass cage and jump 4 feet off the bookcase to the floor.   He then somehow found his way under the bed while being followed by at least one cat.  As soon as I got my bearings, I could no longer find him.  We looked for him for at least 30 minutes before I realized I was going to have to wake up Kara to help us  look.  It was then  2 a.m. We knew he would not be safe if we did not find him before going back to bed.  We also knew Kara would be crushed if anything had happened to him, because of something she forgot to do.  Kara is a bit of an animal whisperer, so I had hope she would find him. She was able to  get Sonny (Sonic the second) out of a shelving unit at the pet store.  30 more minutes go by, then an hour.  By 3:15, we are all exhausted.  Kara said she is so tired, that  she feels like she is going to fall over.  She rested on the bed, while I continued to look and listen for him to make some noise.. At 3:40 we heard something on the scale in the bathroom.  (I guess he was trying to weigh himself)  Tootsie the cat heard him too, and beat me to the bathroom. I flipped on the light and see Tootsie following him closely as he runs  all over the bathroom.  Neither of the cats ever touched him, but they sure were interested in him.  They see him all the time in his hamster ball, but this was the first time they had seen him running around freely.   I yelled in relief, "he's in here"!!  Kara ran in, picked him up, and squealed with joy.   By the time we were all settled down it was 4 a.m.!  That 6:45 alarm  went off  way to early today!!  Since Kara had not yet missed a day of school (unlike last year with the mono and foot injury) I allowed her to stay home and rest.  She really needed it.  This afternoon we took Shadow out in his ball for a bit.  He seems no worse for the wear.  I hope he remembers his nighttime adventure, and doesn't repeat it EVER AGAIN!

Milo Cat #3, He is not in this story!