Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Little Beasties

This is Pancetta.
We are hamster sitting for the holidays. Oddly, Pancetta's mommy is not a second grader or even a second grade teacher, but a full fledged adult, with a job and everything. Frustrated that she has neither the time nor the space to satisfy her dream of having a dog (and naming it Bacon,) she settled for a she-hamster and named her... Pancetta. You with me? Alright.

Pancetta came with her own coordinated accessories including the strawberry you see above that serves as her refuge from the world. The hamster version of a calgon bath and 500 thread-count sheets. She has a matching wheel, and a big vitamin lick shaped like an ice cream cone. Everything a girl needs. Pancetta also arrived with a clear purple ball that she likes to be placed in so that she may roam the rest of Leila's room. I wonder if she's drunk, the way she bangs into things, but I know that she has some sense because she paused for a while on the warm heater vent.

Perry the dog is not amused.

He sits at Leila's door and whines. He knows there's something in there that is smelly and alive, and he cannot stand not knowing what it is and what it would feel like to lick it all over. Also, he loves (and is submissive to) all animals, even animals that can't stand him. (This is absolutely true: he once rolled over for a duck that was crossing our path.)

Pancetta spent a little time bumping into things in her ball today, and made a little pee pee in there. I put her back in her home, and took the ball to the kitchen sink to wash it out. I set it to dry on the counter, and Perry just about had a conniption. I decided it would be a good idea to let him see and smell and lick and touch the ball - WITHOUT THE HAMSTER IN IT - so he could see that it was nothing to worry about, and get on with his life.

I was wrong. Wrong, wrong wrong. Perry is now the proud owner of a hamster ball, and I must now go out and buy Pancetta a new one. Within minutes, the opening to the ball was gnawed to a pulp. A little miscalculation on my part, but my intentions were pure. Pancetta has been very generous and forgiving about the whole thing. At least I assume so, but I can't really talk to her about it because she's barricaded in her strawberry. Maybe I'll write her a nice note.

Perry and his ball. Note the frayed edge of the hole.

In other unrelated animal news, there were 6 bird craps on my car today, and one big, white sloppy one on my back deck. What has gotten into these birds? And don't say that its pinecone bird feeders, because I haven't put mine up yet.

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