Attack

Back in May I forgot to mention that Chiggie got a hamster. She named her Nosy and became unusually attached to her. Nosy came to school and met the class and spent many evenings downstairs observing family activities. In the early days Chiggie could handle her without trouble but as time went on Nosy began biting when she became nervous. This didn't change things much. We bought a few toys for her cage and mostly observed rather than held her. My only concern all along was the fact that we have cats.

I always made sure the girls left their door shut to keep the cats out, but I'm not always right there to remind them. A couple of times the door got left open and I would find Little Tuna (the littlest cat) sitting on the cage. I think I always intervened early on in the "attack" and nothing ever really happened. Until today....

We stayed up way too late last night and getting up for church today was not easy. The girls were slow moving as well and we were running behind. By some miracle we all got ready and into the car just a minute or two later than usual. We were about to leave when I had to run back inside to grab the diaper bag. I ran upstairs to check the baby's room when out of the corner of my eye I saw that the older girls door was open. The King had forgotten to shut it when he woke them up. My heart sank. When I looked in the room their was shavings from the litter everywhere. The cage was on the floor and hanging open. The hamster and the cat were missing.

In a panic I ran out to the car and alerted the King to the emergency inside. He ran in to investigate while I waited outside. I have a huge soft spot and don't handle these things well at all. Much to my surprise the King found the hamster, it's a dwarf and only about the size of a large cotton ball, unharmed huddled in a chair the girls have. He grabbed it with a puppet and put it back in the cage.

For now nosy is locked in protective custody aka the upstairs bathroom. I don't know what to do. The cat cannot be trusted, but surely I can't expect the girls door to be shut at all times. This will happen again, with a much more grim result, if I don't think of something....