Seeking "Sweetie"

Our family has adopted a handful of dwarf hamsters. And voila! We have pets. The idea was to introduce our children to pet ownership in a manageable, responsible, fun, and meaningful way - with animals small enough not to be too daunting and to allow interaction with our kids in a tangible way (we have tropical fish, but unless you have serious mental issues or your fish are somehow in the midst of some loopy Darwinian evolutionary process, you can't really PET fish).

We initially adopted one for each member of our family: Scamper (my son's), Selena (my daughters'), Salty (mine - quite appropriately named), and Sushi (my husband's). 4 little teeny hamsters. And they are ADORABLE and endearing: they crawl all over you and nestle in your neck, making tiny sounds that resemble lightly clicking bunny rabbits, and tickling you with their curious whiskers.

Unfortunately, our hamster journey has not been without its pitfalls. We've had these little critters now for a little under a month. After the first 10 days, we had to return the little white hamster that was my daughter's (Selena) to the pet store because it was an incessant biter and a fairly Selena was replaced by "Sweetie". Sadly, my daughter's replacement hamster (named "Sweetie" ) came up missing this morning, evidently the victim of my children leaving the cage open for a few minutes yesterday while I was out of the room taking out the trash. There are so many lessons to be learned there, among them:

a.) do not leave children alone for even one second with LIVE creatures

b.) taking out the trash is not always a good thing

c.) the fact it is cute and furry does not lessen the somwhat creeped out feeling of knowing it is loose in your house and may turn up at any moment - ideally not as you sit down on it

So, today found our family on a full scale hamster hunt in our house, seeking this minute little furball that is squatting somewhere in our house, even as I type. We have yet to locate any sign of Sweetie the Hamster. My daughter, ever the brilliant innovator, put up "missing" signs in our kitchen, on our front door, and in the living room. With a reward offered of $42.00. She is so tenacious and smart, this little one.

And it's not a bad idea, assuming that hamsters can read.

But if you can locate our miniature missing rodent, that $42.00 is yours. Any takers?