oh my FUCKING god

[ans99]

i just had the worst scare of my life. i was checking lj, and i kept hearing a rustling noise. it sounded like a plastic bag, and it sounded pretty loud, so i decided to see if the guinea pigs had gotten into something, or if wilson had fallen into the trash (he actually attempted this once-- since the rats never ever tried to escape their cage beyond walking the perimeter, i have a habit of leaving the cage open).

so i walked out to the cages, and looked around. pigs were quiet. no wilson in the trash. then i heard the rustling again, sounding like it was coming from the hall. i instantly went on Intruder Alert and crept cautiously back to the hall. guess who the fuck was on the floor, out of his cage and freaking out?

if you said a tiny little rat, you'd be most correct. i said, probably a bit too loudly but fuck you, i was surprised, and realizing how easily i could have stepped on him the first time i went through the hall: "wilson!" and he immediately dashed into the closet and would not come out no matter how much coaxing i gave him. he just sat there perched on top of a jumbo package of toilet paper rolls and looked at me with dime-sized eyes. so eventually i just dragged the whole thing out of the closet and nabbed him. he was so anxious that he was making those little whuffly sounds of rat-panic, and as soon as i put him back in the cage (he leapt in, really, out of my arms), he immediately drank water.

so i have no idea how long he was out of his cage. i got home around 130 and it's 330 now, so max two hours but still-- what a fucking adventure. and there's no telling, either, just how he managed to get down so easily from something a couple feet off the ground.

pretty much all i know is he's safe now, and i can no longer leave the cage door open. GOOD THINGS TO KNOW.

Comments

[exquisitegeek.livejournal.com]

A few years ago, my hamster, Allen, escaped from his house. He somehow managed to do a 3-4 foot drop without hurting himself, and there was a trail of bedding that led me to believe he had crawled up onto the couch for a while.

I was upstairs while this was happening. I took a plate down to the kitchen that night, and when I turned on the light, there was this little orange man standing there staring at me. I think we both had the same look of surprise on our faces. Haha.

[freyja.livejournal.com]

EPIC. hamsters are even smaller than rats (i know because of my learnings) so that just amazes me he was that capable of getting around!

when wils and i spotted each other and he ran, i tell you, there was this horrible sense of panic, like "oh god please don't get lost inside the house somewhere you stupid thing."

[clonie.livejournal.com]

My hamster has no sense of self preservation. If you just let him be, he would be falling off every ledge in the house.

[freyja.livejournal.com]

lol. yeah, when i was doing handling tests on these guys they'd keep trying to obliviously walk right off the edge of the table into empty space. then again they would probably naturally be oblivious clutzes if they never had to deal with heights before, SO.