Hamster Drama!

20 November 2008

Aiyoh, so much drama with Bob, our hamster.

As usual, we sometime let Bob out of his cage in the laundry area so that he can be free to run around instead of always running in the running-ball.

We will of cos close the bi-folding door so that he won't be able to run out of the laundry area to the rest of the house. But there were some times where if the wind blows from our front windows, the bifold door swings a little back and there's a slight gap from the bottom of the door - BOB sometimes do find his way out of the laundry area this way.

We let him out in the evening as they are nocturnal creature. Usually, he will auto go back to his cage to sleep or sometimes he will sleep in a corner but this time, we couldn't find him anywhere in the house.

So we suspect that - horrors - he could have gone down the drainage pipe (see arrow 1, there's a hole in the drain cover to put in a hose but that night, the hose was not in the drain-cover hole so there's a gap). We slowly opened up the cover expecting the worst, drowned and body floating? - but no leh, nothing.

This was in the morning, so hubby said that he's most probably somewhere in the house but if by evening, he's not back in his cage, he's most probably got flushed out to the sewage pipes.

I was so sad, BOB is so cute.

Anyway, hubby took half day leave and was back home in the afternoon. On a hunch, he took a look down the smaller pipe (arrow 2) which was where the washing-machine water goes to drain out - hmm...... saw something brownish but that could be the pipe stains but hey, wait!!!! "I can see whiskers moving, it's BOB and he's still alive!"

I looked down the pipe and called him "BOB, BOB" and he responded by trying to climb out of the pipe which of cos he couldn't cos too slippery.

Hubby took a clamp and put it down the pipe and BOB instantly clamour onto the clamp without prompting and hubby managed to clamp him out of the pipe.

He was still rather active and he quickly ran into his cage. He was shivering. I read that hamster cannot be wet for too long or else might die so I quickly brought out my hair-dryer and we try to dry him asap. He was so smart, he didn't like the hair-dryer blowing in his face so he turned around so that we can dry the back of his furs - he was showing us his ass.



BOB fell down the big drain-pipe (arrow 1). There's another smaller drainage hole inside the big drain-pipe where BOB climbed onto. The water does not come all the way up to the smaller drain-pipe or he would have drowned.
Hubby clamped BOB out from the pipe arrowed 2.



Blowing warm air.



Poor BOB, he looked tired and half-dead.



BOB is really a survivor. He fell into the hole and was wet all night.

On top of that, I, ahem, did some clothes washing and all the soapy water drained into that small pipe drainage which BOB was holed up in - and thank goodness, I did not do a hot wash!!!!!
The water temperature for my hot wash cycle is 95 degrees - he would be cooked alive!!!!!!!