Last year The Finks and 2 other families went on our annual camping holiday to Weymouth. Before we left we had to arrange the care for our pets, 'Bunnyfink', Harry the black cat, Badger the black and white cat and a large tank full of tropical fish.
Our kind neighbour (who was worn out from decorating her hall, stairs and landing and laying a new carpet) stepped in and agreed to feed and water them, with strict instructions NOT to phone us if anything died or got run over!
The day before we were due to go, Mrs Glum (matriarch of one of the camping families) realised there was noone available to feed the Glum family hamster.
"Don't worry," I said, "bring the cage round and I'm sure our neighbour won't mind feeding one more animal." (Famous last words)
We had been on holiday for about 5 days when our neighbour phoned me,
"I'm so sorry, the hamster cage wasn't shut properly and the hamster got out, I think the cat's must have eaten it. I am so sorry, I've been out and bought another one" explained the neighbour.
I explained that (and I don't mean to be gruesome but this is what cats are like) if there were no remains of the hamster at all (feet, blood etc.) then the hamster would still be alive and hiding in the house somewhere - just watch the cats and if you see one pointing at the space under the sideboard with a knife and fork - you know where the hamster is!
Anyway a day passed, the neighbour and her family apparently found the hamster, coaxed/poked it out from under the sideboard, but were now stuck. They couldn't put it in the cage because the new hamster was in there and she didn't want them to fight/mate, so she put it in the cardboard box the 'new' hamster had come in and took it home.
In the meantime, our other neighbour (owner of 2 Staffordshire Terriers) had contacted the pet-sitting neighbour to say, when she got home from work - prior to letting the dogs out, she had found our rabbit had dug a hole under the fence and was in her garden eating the flowers, so, because she had nothing else to contain it while the dogs came out, she put it in an empty dustbin!
The pet sitting neighbour retrieved the rabbit, locked it in the hutch and blocked up all the holes.
During the night, the hamster chewed its way out of the box, onto the new carpet and chewed that too. ARGH! The hamster spent the next few hours of its life in a plastic bucket.
The next day she took the new hamster back to the pet shop, reinstated the old one back in its cage, fed the cats and fish and went for a lie down.
When we returned she was treated, not to the usual Weymouth fudge, but a couple of bottles of decent Dorset cider. She is a brave lady and nothing fazes her!
