Another Hamster Story

As a young child I had the privilege of being the steward and caretaker of a few hamsters. What I find shameful and embarrassing is that I never researched or took the time to understand the natural habitat of the hamster. To me, its original habitat was the local pet store. It relocated from the pet store to the habitat I created for it- a fancy Habitrail cage made of plastic and metal. A home that was so far removed from its preferred habitat where it thrived and had all of the essentials of a well balanced life. A hamster’s natural habitat is void of eager little human hands wanting to hold and cuddle them, waking them from their daytime deep slumber.

We are so used to seeing these cute, puffy-cheeked creatures as domesticated pets, but that doesn’t mean that the hamsters natural habitat doesn’t

still exist. Hamsters are still thriving in the wild! Before hamsters were domesticated in the 1930s, they lived in the wilderness. They herald from

the fertile areas on the Aleppinian plateau - sandwiched between northern Syria and southern Turkey. It took me 52 years and writing this blog to learn about their natural habitat!

Now, back to another hamster story.

In addition to my hamster, Fat Albert, I had another hamster aptly named Houdini. No matter how diligent we were in making the Habitrail an impenetrable fortress, Houdini could always escape!

There was a mystery in our house that we could not solve. My mother kept finding Cat Chow in my parents closet on the second floor of our house. If I remember correctly I was interrogated about the Cat Chow. This was rather insulting since I am not a cat nor did I have a palate for Cat Chow! The mystery was finally solved early one morning while my father was in the kitchen having a cup of coffee. He took a sip of his coffee and some movement in the kitchen caught his attention. He looked down and saw Houdini stuffing her puffy saddle bag cheeks with Fraidy Cats Cat Chow. My father watched curiously as Houdini left the kitchen with her bounty and climbed a flight of stairs, squeezed under my parents closed bedroom door and subsequently flattened herself to squeeze under their closet door to deposit her mound. By the way, my research about hamsters uncovered that they should not regularly indulge in cat food. There is no indication that she ate the Cat Chow. Perhaps she was preparing for an apocalyptic event and this was part of her survival arsenal. Shall we forget about why she was storing the food and focus our attention on how impressive and resourceful this hamster could be?

I don’t recall my mother ever apologizing for accusing me of the Great Cat Chow caper, but I do recall Houdini entering the Hall of Fame of the many domesticated pets I have had the honor of stewardship.