Yesterday, after an extremely long work-day I stopped at the grocery store, did my banking and hurried home to read with Rachel; our new bedtime ritual that gets her to bed sooner, and keeps her reading journal up-to-date, called to meet a friend for a girlfriend's night out and was back home by 11:00.
Ready for some well-deserved sleep I walked in the house to see Sonny sitting on the couch and he calmly said, " I have to tell you right off, the hamster is somewhere in the house... I put her in the ball, and let her go burn off some energy and somehow the cover came off the ball."
"Well, did you look for her?" I asked incredulously.
" I did for a little while,", he said.
In the kitchen I spied the pink ball sans cover. I checked the food pantry and under the stove and yelled to Sonny, "The mousetrap???"
He yelled back, "Unarmed!"
Phew! I surveyed my office area, a place pretty much untouched since I started working 3 months ago, save last weekend when I dumped 30 pairs of fireman boots there, in the hopes of finding a few minutes to list them for a store liquidation I've signed on to. Now acutely aware of a helpless creature loose in the wilds of the first floor of my house I had a sudden feeling of fear for the little one.
My thoughts raced to Rachel waking up to no hamster and I suddenly found energy I didn't think I had. Conscious of sliding my feet instead of stepping anywhere, I went about the task of picking up everything in my office, checking every box and inside every single boot for our wayward Jub-Jub, all the while calling her name.
I knew there weren't many snacks on the floor for her since Keisha (Donna's dog) had been here a few days ago and Hoovered it for us and I figured Jub might return to her hoards in the cage as a last resort so I got her cage and put it on the floor in the kitchen with the door propped open. I returned to calling, "Chub-Chubs" in a sweet Rachel-like voice and picking up the office for probably close to 20 minutes when I heard Sonny call, "Carol, she's in here, in the food box!"
And indeed, there she was, nestled between the bag of yogurt covered treats and the fruit-flavored chew logs. Pure hamster heaven I'm sure. I should have known all along, where else would she be???
As I picked her up a mixture of relief of finding her (and my exhaustion, I suppose) apparently spilled down my cheeks and Sonny said he didn't realize how much I cared about her.
Well, that made two of us.
