The Hamster Christmas Story

One snowy Christmas Eve long, long ago when the O’Hara’s lived in Middletown Ohio we purchased a hamster for one of my daughters. To go along with the hamster we purchased one of those balls that you put the hamster in and watch him roll around on the floor.

The floor was covered in toys and wrapping paper and we were enjoying the hamster’s antics. So were the dogs. They were eying the hamster as he was looking mighty tasty.  

After a couple hours the kids were worn out and I was too. Linny was off work that night. She was a nurse at Children’s Hospital in Dayton and somehow she got to spend this night at home. The kids and I hustled upstairs to bed and Linny stayed up for some quiet time to herself.

The hamster was still rolling about, so Linny tried to reach in the ball and grab him to go into his cage. However the hamster wanted his freedom and jumped out of her hand. She cornered him under the couch and made a move to grab him. Instead, he grabbed her by digging his sharp front teeth right into her finger and not letting go.

Linny couldn’t get the wee beastie to let go and it hurt, so she did the first thing she could think of and that was to open the front door and fling the little critter off of her finger out onto the snow covered front porch.

She then closed the door, washed her finger and bandaged it. Feeling a little guilty she opened to front door to see if the hamster was still there, but guess what she saw?  There in the snow were tiny little hamster foot prints on the front walk that abruptly stopped and turned into tiny little kitty footprints.

She saw the cat turn and look at her as if to say, "Thank you lady. Christmas dinner was delicious."

One hamsters taste of freedom turned into one kitty’s taste of hamster.