Ernie's Story

There's always something interesting going on in Baden!

About two weeks ago, Ryan and the kids went for a bike ride with Lewis and we ended up with a new hamster!!

I was sitting on the front porch knitting, when all of a sudden I could hear Ethan screaming "We have a new hamster!  We have a new hamster!"  Seriously, I could hear them before I could see them.  I could tell that they were coming home a different way then they normally do, so I knew something was up.  Sure enough, the pull up to the driveway and there is a hamster cage, complete with hamster, sitting in the bike trailer with Sydney.

So here's what happen:  We usually do the same path every time we go biking with the dog, and it takes us through parts of Baden where there are no houses yet, just big dirt fields.  Anyway, on the second loop of our route, Ryan noticed a family (mom, dad and little girl) looking at something in a field, a bit back off the road.  Being the little bit nosy that he is, Ryan stopped to see what they were looking at.  The man said "It's a hamster, someone left it here."  Sure enough there was a hamster in a cage with no food and water.  The man told Ryan that they have two big dogs so can't take it home, and asked if we wanted a new pet.  Ryan replied that in fact we didn't want a new pet, but he couldn't just leave it there to die.  So the hamster came to live with us.

The cage was FILTHY!  There was hardly any bedding, no wheel, no where for the dude to hide.  Hamster was FAT and his teeth were really over-grown.  You could just tell that he wasn't being taken care of.  He was really nippy too...straight off he bit Ethan, then later he got Cody and Mia too.  (Side note: We're not actually sure he's a he, we're just assuming)  Anyway, the critter must have been terrified.  We have no idea how long he was sitting out there like that...you'd be scared too.

Luckily, we still had a cage, bedding, and food from our last hamster, so I got it all set up and transferred hamster over there.  This is when we finally thought that maybe we should give him a name.  I asked the kids what they thought was a good name, and I suggested Spindle, but the boys said that was too girly.  Ethan suggested Ernie and that because hamster's name.  We later found out that Ethan picked "Ernie" because he wanted to name the hamster after the big yellow bird from Sesame Street.  Even after finally convincing Ethan that the big yellow bird's name was Big Bird and not Ernie (which took me googling a picture of Bert and Ernie to show him) the name still stuck.

So two weeks after his ordeal, Ernie is doing good and he's not as nippy anymore, but I'm still using garden gloves when I pick him up just to be sure.  He's super friendly and comes down out of the loft when you talk to him.  He LOVES running on his wheel and does it pretty much all night.  He also loves his chew treats and his teeth have visibly shrunken.  We bought him one of those balls that he can go in and run around the house and he really digs that too.

All in all, I'm glad to have him and I'm proud to have a husband that is that decent that he would bring a stray home to help it out!