Broken Promises

I thought we had the perfect life; a mother, father, two children, and another bundle of joy on the way. We also have a family dog named Missy. Our children have more than they need, way more than I remember having when I was growing up. You would think this would be enough. Evidently in their eyes it is never enough.

In January, my six year old Heather came home from school asking for a hamster. After all the endless promises of feeding, watering, and cleaning up after it, my husband and I thought it might teach her some responsibility. We came to the decision of going and getting her a hamster. Needless to say, we have now accumulated two hamsters, and no responsibility from our six year old.

The first couple of days the hamster was new and cute in her eyes. She fed, watered, cleaned the cage, and managed to lose the hamster. I was very upset by the news of the lost hamster. From past childhood experiences I new how much damage an escaped hamster could cause. I hoped the hamster would bypass the chewing up the carpet and go straight out the vent in to the great outdoors. With all my hopes so high and heathers begging, I allowed her to count her money in the piggy bank and go buy another one all too soon. At about twelve o'clock am the hamster came creeping out so we than had two.

Needless to say, she has lost the hamsters more than once, so we have become hamster catching professionals. The procedures that we follow to catch the hamsters are pretty simple, but require a lot of patience. To get started, we first set the hamster cage in the middle of the floor with the lid off and we than make sure that plenty of food, snacks, and water is in the cage. We do this because we know that sooner or later the hamster will get hungry and smell the food. Which will draw the hamster to the cage and if we spot it we have enough room to try and catch it without it having the chance to get to a quick hiding spot. Normally the hamster will come out late at night; they do this because they are nocturnal animals and sleep most of the day. Once we see the hamster we shut off all escape routes, we then have the hamster cornered.