The Tale of a Lost Hamster

My little guy Tyler loves animals. The only thing he wanted for his birthday was another pet. Since I knew my husband would say "no" only because we already have a mini zoo, I took him to the pet store to get his hamster after school.

Tyler was on top of the world. Before I took him to get his hamster, I brought him to the Zoomar's petting zoo to play with their hamsters. After seeing him cuddle and interact with their hamsters, I knew he would do a terrific job caring for one.

When I brought him to the pet store to pick out his new hamster, he was jumping up and down with excitement after hearing about the surprise. He took his time carefully holding every hamster in the pet store before picking the soft brown hamster (to be named Junior).

When daddy learned about the hamster he was mad at me for about two seconds (he can never stay mad at me) and then helped Tyler setup the cage for Junior. Tyler was so excited about his new pet, and put the cage right next to his bed before going to sleep.

The next morning we went to wake-up Tyler and noticed that the top on Juniors cage was off. Then we began the search for Junior. I spent the entire day tearing up the bedroom looking for the hamster - just to have no luck.

Then I got a call from the school. It was my older son Andrew. He was upset and had to confess. He had snuck into Tyler's room in the middle of the night to "cuddle" with the hamster in his bed. Then he "accidentally" fell asleep with the hamster in his bed.

Starting to sound like a soap opera...right?

I could have screamed knowing that I had spent the entire morning looking in the wrong room for the hamster, but glad that Andrew had told us the truth about what happened. I then began my search for Junior in older son's room, when I discovered the hamster had climbed into a hole in the wall. A hole that I swore I would patch for months, but got lazy and did not do it. I had accidentally made the hole in the wall while moving some furniture, and now it was home to our new hamster.

I tried everything to lure the hamster out of the wall, but after a full day he slowly moved further and further into the walls sealing his fate.

When Tyler came home from school, he sat next to his empty hamster cage and cried. He cried...and cried....and cried...and cried...until falling asleep for the night.

The dilemma now is...Do we tell Tyler that his hamster is "dead"? Or do we replace him with a similar hamster while he is at school?