Buddy's Story

Right now I wish I could channel Heather's wit because this is a pretty funny story and I do not think I will be able to do it justice!

For Christmas we decided to purchase the kids 2 larger gifts off the theme of God's beautiful creation. So we purchased a nice Art Easel.( which Pearson broke yesterday (dear Wayne has already patched the poor thing) so they can learn to record God's beautiful creation. Kim bought into the plan and got them a Beta fish, bowl, rocks and food. His name is Snoodle (after the veggietale). She also got them an ant farm.

The final gift in the theme to show the girls the wonders of God's wonderful creation was a hamster. So we went to Petco to get them the beast. We get there and they are out of the hamster I wanted. But I found out they were small and really fast but they had a bigger slower hamster , the Black Bear Hamster. So I got the lit fat guy. They box it up and put you through a 30 minute care and feeding explanation, give me several handouts and make sure I am aware of the 'best' choices. This by the way is more information than they gave me about Peyton when they let me take her from the hospital!

So I listened carefully all the while thinking this poor guy doesn't have any idea who he's giving the hamster to. If the hamster manages to avoid the being eaten by the cat and the dog he still has Big Baby (Pearson) to contend with! But finally, after my FBI Background check & an all clear from President Bush was given they released him into my 'care'.

Kim and I still had more shopping to do so we headed over to Target to get stocking stuffers and Starbucks. When we arrived at Target and secured the hamster on the floor board, I asked Kim if she thought he could get out of the box. The Maass' have had hamster's before and she assured me that it could not escape so off we went..........When we returned we got Pearson buckled in, put the items in the back of the truck. Kim picked up the hamsters box and set it in her lap and sat down and started screaming.....

So as I sipped on my Peppermint Mocha I looked at her and said, "Is there a problem?"

She answered, "It's gone!"

"What's gone?"

"The hamster is gone it ate through the box!"

"You said it couldn't eat through the box!"

"It did!"

So now we are both screaming! So we look around the car for the beast which is kind of funny because even if we found it neither one of us was willing to pick it up. Kim popped the hod and we continued to look in the truck and under the dash. Now a good Samaritan comes up to see if we need any help? ...Lets see two women with the hood popped, looking under the dashboard while intermittently screaming....This was a brave man!

He kindly informed us that the hamster most likely could not make its way into the engine.

I asked him, "If we drive the truck to Wal-Mart will we cook the hamster?"

He looked surprised for a moment and then said, "No, I don't think so."

So we thanked the kind stranger and he went on his way. Then Kim tied up the bottom of her pants 80's style so he couldn't make his way up her pant leg. We pulled out of the space and I suddenly noticed that Kim was not looking at the road but at the floor board......I convinced her it was important to look at the road and we continued on to Wal-Mart. Where we were meeting the men who were going to locate this thing in the truck!

We get to Wal-Mart and again look for the beast, we are unwilling to catch. Get Pearson and head in... about 45 minutes later Wayne comes into Wal-Mart (CS) his hair is all crazy and he looks at me and ask: "What kind of killer rat did you purchase?" apparently as they were trying to get thing out of the dash board it scratched the tar out of them , hissed and bit them. Sounds like the perfect Christmas gift doesn't it!

Wayne then informed me that he envisioned all the Petco employee's cheering as we purchased and left the store with the deranged killer hamster. So he came in bought the hamsters little ball thing to contain the little Houdini and he was on his way.

So all is saved and on Christmas we gave the hamster which I named "Cujitso" (combination of Cujo and martial arts) but the kids named Buddy to the overjoyed children.

One would think the story would be over at this point......

Well, Cujitso escaped from his cage on Wednesday night! So all day Thursday we watched for the escaped hamster, listened for the escaped hamster while I cleaned up vomit! Sound ideal......

Well, I washed my phone last week so I couldn't even call Wayne to let him know the hamster was loose! So he gets home gets informed looks for him but decides to wait until night time when the little beast is more active. Since all odd noises wake me up he's pretty sure he's gonna find it. So just like clockwork at about 1 am I pop up and say what's that? He pops up and starts to give me his normal reply "The ice-make.... " and he leaps out of bed and runs into the kitchen.

"I've found him"
"Good."

I need your help, I pretend to sleep, he says he knows I am awake!

"So up I go," and luckily it wasn't the hamster. So I went back to bed.

But apparently Wayne stayed up and in the morning he showed me where he found the hamster. That little beast had gotten under the stove and was digging a hole in my brand new wall! Wayne said he was covered in dust very dirty and acting oddly... again I ponder what a great gift to show the girls God's wonderful creation, a deranged hamster.

Well, Buddy is back in his cage with a shower mat over the top until Wayne has time to cut a lid for the hamster cage.

So hamster anyone?

I'm working on the next kitchen post which I'll probably finish by the 31st! So stay tuned for "Cheap Trix" kitchen edition!