Hamster tails, err tales
Continuing from below....
In college, for a bit, my ex and I lived in married students' housing. No pets were allowed. Well, no cats or dogs. You could have birds, fish, rodents, anything but a cat or dog. We were animal people. We wanted a cat. We settled for hamsters - the beige teddy bear hamsters that were so popular in the early 70's. We wanted a gerbil, but they were (are they still?) illegal in California. So, we got these two adorable hamsters and played with them constantly. We also had two tropical fish tanks, a canary, a parakeet, and two chinchillas. I told you. We were animal people.
The hamsters lived in this tall wire cage with a great wheel in it, and lots of steps they could go up and down. This was before Habitrails came out. I think we did eventually have one of those balls you put them in and let them roll all over the floor in. Anyway, these guys, of course, had kids - usually four at a time. We sold them to the local pet store. But they became really adept at getting out of their cage. The male would lift the door over and over and over again, endlessly. At first, it wasn't a concern because he couldn't lift it far - a quarter inch or so. But eventually he figured out how to open it and get a limb under it to keep it open for a second or two. The female caught wind of what he was up to. Next thing we knew, she was sneaking out under the door to freedom. We snatched her and put her back in the cage, figuring this was a fluke. Of course, it wasn't. They eventually learned how to get out of the cage together. We'd get up and find them in all sorts of places - in the laundry, under the bed, everywhere. We'd put them in the cage, try to figure out some way to keep them from lifting the door, and they'd find a way out.
Their cage was in the spare bedroom on the second floor, so finding them was pretty easy - there were only two bedrooms and a bathroom on the floor, and it was not a big place. One morning, I went downstairs to make coffee. I noticed that my small schefflera (umbrella plant)was knocked over. I went to pick it up, and saw that it was pretty much gone. What I mean is, something had eaten the plant to the stalk! Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement. Mr. Hamster was scurrying around the living room. In another corner of the room was Mrs. Hamster. These two little rodents had escaped their cage and gotten down the stairs and were eating my plants. Now, the floors in this apartment were uncarpeted, old-fashioned asphalt tile floors everywhere but the living room, where there was carpet. The steps were slippery. We could not imagine how the hamsters had made it down an entire flight of stairs. So, we scooped them up, put them back in the cage, and decided to watch them. They had become so adept at escaping from the cage by now, that in a matter of seconds, they were out and headed for their veggie feast downstairs. It was then that we noticed the narrow strip of wood that lined the stairway on both side - sort of like the baseboard for the steps. These little rascals were scurrying down that strip of wood like it was the Bonneville Salt Flats. They were downstairs in seconds. We laughed like idiots. Being the starving college students we were, we couldn't afford a new cage, and the construction of the one we had pretty much precluded being able to lock the cage door shut, so we took the whole shebang to the pet store and sold them back to him.
Then there's the chinchilla story...but another time.
