Suspect Fled the Scene
Its 8:30 AM on a wednesday and over the past 5 hours two extremely strange things have happened t0 me (well the first one is extremely strange, the second one is just strange). In my room I have a hamster and a beta fish. The hamster lives in a 2.5' long by 1' high by 1' deep habitrail set with a crawl tube extension leading to a small petting station with a removable roof. The petting station is about a foot off the top of the habitrail and the habitrail is about a foot off the top of the dresser it sits on which is about 3 and a half feet off the ground. On the other side of the room, on the floor because i havent cleared any space on any tables yet, lies a beta fish in probably a 3 - 4 liter (i use liters because its filled with bottled water and theyre half a liter each) glass vase. It sits about 2 feet off the side of my bed, and about a foot in front of my nightstand and a modular hatch wire cube storage shelving unit.
Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that its a reasonable distance away. So last night my roommate was messing around with the hamster like he usually does and forgot to put the top roof of the petting station back on. Hes always said theres no way for the hamster to get out even if the roof's off because the jump is too far to make. I can't wait to yell to him his innacuracy after i get home from work.
So at 3:30 this morning I wake up hearing a very strange noise coming from the side of my bed. It took me about 5 - 6 seconds for what I was seeing to register in my head at the time and still I think I was dreaming the whole thing. I woke up to a huge fish, one too big for the bowl, flapping around frantically in the fish bowl.
A few more seconds later, I realized that it wasnt a huge fish but Carl my hamster. He was jumping up and down in a feverish convulsive attempt to save his own life. I'll tell ya, you think youve seen fear before, it was nothing like the look in that little hamsters eyes. Anyway, I think a funded reasearch team would have a hard time figuring out how he got in there. I swear to god, I cant think of any possible way he did that. The only thing that comes to mind is he must have (which goes against every previous thought Ive had about his jumping ability) jumped down from the petting station to the top of the cage. At this point he probably was very wary about walking around the roof because theres not much walking space. After scouting it out, he probably jumped down to the top of the dresser. Here is where I cant understand what happened. I guess, GUESS, he must have found some route to crawling down the dresser. He probably just fell off the top of the thing and landed on the ground. If he did, I dont see him living through that. But regardless, he had to have found a way down. So once on the ground I'm assuming he was walking around, exploring it for a bit until he came to the modular wire storage shelf i have, which would be VERY easy for him to climb. So i guess he climbed that and from some evidence of the bamboo stalk in the fishbowl, he was nibbling the leaves of the bamboo, which is about a few inches away from the edge of the shelf, and then he must have slipped and fallen into the bowl.
And then thats where I wake up. I'll tell ya, he settled a lot of doubts about the abilities of hamsters to get to very strange places. What was interesting to note about the whole thing is that at around 6 PM earlier that day I knocked the fish bowl over and spilled about a 3 inches of water out of it. I never replaced the water but had i done that theres not way his little head would have been able to reach the surface for air. I would have one dead hamster, god bless his soul, and one roommate who would get the shit kicked out of him.
But anyway, that was my morning. Oh, and the second weird thing, well its not as weird as it is lucky and awesome, but I went up to a food vending machine here at work and tried to get some candy out of it because I hadnt eaten anything and I just pressed the number of what i wanted (i never put any money in) and it kept making the noise like it was trying to pull in a dollar bill. after a few attempts of the machine to take in a dollar I hit coin return and out popped 4 quarters. So i took them and I think i might have a new method of getting free toll money. I hope it works from here on out till I leave at the end of the summer.
I wish stuff like this happened every day.
Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that its a reasonable distance away. So last night my roommate was messing around with the hamster like he usually does and forgot to put the top roof of the petting station back on. Hes always said theres no way for the hamster to get out even if the roof's off because the jump is too far to make. I can't wait to yell to him his innacuracy after i get home from work.
So at 3:30 this morning I wake up hearing a very strange noise coming from the side of my bed. It took me about 5 - 6 seconds for what I was seeing to register in my head at the time and still I think I was dreaming the whole thing. I woke up to a huge fish, one too big for the bowl, flapping around frantically in the fish bowl.
A few more seconds later, I realized that it wasnt a huge fish but Carl my hamster. He was jumping up and down in a feverish convulsive attempt to save his own life. I'll tell ya, you think youve seen fear before, it was nothing like the look in that little hamsters eyes. Anyway, I think a funded reasearch team would have a hard time figuring out how he got in there. I swear to god, I cant think of any possible way he did that. The only thing that comes to mind is he must have (which goes against every previous thought Ive had about his jumping ability) jumped down from the petting station to the top of the cage. At this point he probably was very wary about walking around the roof because theres not much walking space. After scouting it out, he probably jumped down to the top of the dresser. Here is where I cant understand what happened. I guess, GUESS, he must have found some route to crawling down the dresser. He probably just fell off the top of the thing and landed on the ground. If he did, I dont see him living through that. But regardless, he had to have found a way down. So once on the ground I'm assuming he was walking around, exploring it for a bit until he came to the modular wire storage shelf i have, which would be VERY easy for him to climb. So i guess he climbed that and from some evidence of the bamboo stalk in the fishbowl, he was nibbling the leaves of the bamboo, which is about a few inches away from the edge of the shelf, and then he must have slipped and fallen into the bowl.
And then thats where I wake up. I'll tell ya, he settled a lot of doubts about the abilities of hamsters to get to very strange places. What was interesting to note about the whole thing is that at around 6 PM earlier that day I knocked the fish bowl over and spilled about a 3 inches of water out of it. I never replaced the water but had i done that theres not way his little head would have been able to reach the surface for air. I would have one dead hamster, god bless his soul, and one roommate who would get the shit kicked out of him.
But anyway, that was my morning. Oh, and the second weird thing, well its not as weird as it is lucky and awesome, but I went up to a food vending machine here at work and tried to get some candy out of it because I hadnt eaten anything and I just pressed the number of what i wanted (i never put any money in) and it kept making the noise like it was trying to pull in a dollar bill. after a few attempts of the machine to take in a dollar I hit coin return and out popped 4 quarters. So i took them and I think i might have a new method of getting free toll money. I hope it works from here on out till I leave at the end of the summer.
I wish stuff like this happened every day.
posted by Mike at 8:39 AM
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