FOUND!

After a couple of days of waiting for Little Mouse to return on her own with no results, I decided it was time to go looking for her.

How do you find a small mouse in a large house? I didn't know so I Googled it. eHow said to make a trap with a bucket, food and books as stairs. Ideally the hamster smells the food, climbs the "stairs", and falls into the bucket and is trapped. Wow, easy enough. I decided to set one up in the bonus room. This was, after all, the place we found her last time she escaped. As I was finishing some of the details I saw a little fuzzy nose and whiskers poke out from under the *printer. Ah-HA! I made a trail of treats to lead her all the way out in the open and then I grabbed her!

I put her into the bucket (cauldron) and brought her downstairs. I was going to put her back into her cage when I realized how dirty it was. No wonder she made a run for it. While I washed out her cage (no small task) I kept her in the bucket. She had stuffed all the food she could into her cheeks and tried like mad to escape.

She almost succeeded.

She is now locked in her cage with food, water, and bedding. She'll get out again I'm sure but let's hope she waits awhile.

*for those of you wondering why I didn't just move the printer.... this is our printer.
Think small refrigerator.

Mouse Musings

When we got our hamsters we could not come together on what their names should be. When we realized that one was mean and would bite and scratch the other we named them "Mean Mouse" and "Little Mouse".

Mean Mouse died shortly after the naming. We were not that sad, he deserved what he got. Mouse Karma, who knew? (I have always spelled it Kharma, but Wiki says it should be spelled without the h)

Little Mouse was the sweetest little thing, climbing, gnawing, jumping, eating, and escaping.

She is quite a sneaky little hamster. We haven't been able to figure out how, but she can open up multiple pods in her "house" to escape. We have found her in the cabinet under where her house sits, hidden behind an old picture frame. Evan came across her in the bonus room peeking out from under the printer. We didn't even know she was missing and it nearly gave Evan a heart attack. Most recently, one night last week, I was sitting in the iJoy chair hoping a massage would make me sleepy when I saw something move on the floor beside me (in the dark). I jumped up and turned on the light to find our sneaky little hamster doing what looked like the army crawl.

She is gone again. We don't know when she left or where on earth she could be. Well, we have a pretty good idea that she is still in the house BUT we have a rather large house compared to a hamster. We have left her house open in hopes she will return when hungry or thirsty.

Now that we know how good she is at escaping we are clear on what her name should have been...

Hairy Houdini.

We'll keep you posted.

Where'd he learn that?

As the mother of four I am in a constant state of baffle-dom (is that even a word? It is now!)

I am either baffled by my children's stupidity or by their genius.

Yesterday it was genius (so refreshing!)

I was complaining about Hope and her appetite. She can never seem to have enough food in her tummy. I usually feed her once in the morning and once in the evening but she never fails to give me the "I'm hungry" stare at 2pm. I thought I would outsmart her by spreading the wealth out thru the day via breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It didn't work. She gave me the stare all afternoon, but I didn't cave, I was strong.

Anyhoo! As I was discussing this with Eli (7 years, 10 months) he said "it looks like she went over her budget of food". Since I have been actively listening to my children (see here) I heard this and then said "what did you say?" (not because I didn't hear him, but because I wanted him to say it again to make sure I heard him correctly. BUDGETING?)

Yup, I heard him correctly. My 7 year old knows about budgeting. (he didn't learn it from me!)
I asked him if he was learning about budgets in math... "no", "Did we discuss this in Family Home Evening?" I asked. "No".

Apparently he just knew! (I wish he'd teach me!)

CRAZY!

R.I.P. Poofy

Poofy the hamster was found unresponsive today. We are all very sad. She was a sweet "little mouse" and she will be missed. A private service will be held in the backyard later today.

Noah and Dad built a box for her and in the box he put a rose and the following letter.

Dear Poofy,

I will always remember you. I wish you were still here, but I know you are happy up in heaven right now. I will miss your tickly little whiskers and the way you stuffed your cheeks full of food and stuff. You were the best little hamster in the whole entire world.

Love,

Noah

What a ZOO!

Call me crazy but we just adopted another pet. Noah has been saving for a hamster and we found a great deal on craigslist. Meet Pooffy (aka Pooffer, Poof Ball, Double Stuff, Mouse) In case you are keeping track the score is: 6 humans - 4 creatures

She is adorable and is Noah's pride and joy.