Things went horribly wrong. With my wife and two of my children away over Easter I had planned to spend the time with my ten year old daughter doing some father-daughter quality-time activities and it was en route to one of these (a movie and ten-pin bowling) that it happened.
It went down something like this (although I can't swear to anything, as it happened pretty fast)
Sharp eyed 10 year Daughter: "Look dad, there's a pet shop."
Responsible Father: (no comment)
Doe eyed daughter: "Awe, please can I get a hamster?"
Responsible Father: "No my love" (your mom will kill us)
It went down something like this (although I can't swear to anything, as it happened pretty fast)
Sharp eyed 10 year Daughter: "Look dad, there's a pet shop."
Responsible Father: (no comment)
Doe eyed daughter: "Awe, please can I get a hamster?"
Responsible Father: "No my love" (your mom will kill us)
Ten year old boy stuck inside father’s body: "Hey that could be cool. No, - bad idea. Hey that could be cool. No, - bad idea. Hey that could be cool"
Shocked Daughter: "Thanks dad, I didn't think you would stop."
Responsible Father: (Slightly surprised to actually find himself parked outside a pet shop) "We're just going to have a look my love"
Shocked Daughter: "Thanks dad, I didn't think you would stop."
Responsible Father: (Slightly surprised to actually find himself parked outside a pet shop) "We're just going to have a look my love"
Ten year old boy stuck inside father’s body: "Wow. Cool pet shop. Look rabbits!"
We ended up in front of the hamster cages and I was thinking that, “Wow, for ten Rand they ARE cheap.”
I thought that one would sell for at least twenty Rand. So obviously I, the adult and father then said: "Lets take two. A male and a female. Then they can mate"
I mean it seemed kind of cool at the time and not such a bad idea.
I should probably have been concerned that the shop assistant smelled of booze. But it was Easter and I figured well, drunk or not, he knew more than I did about sexing hamsters.
"How old are these?” I ask
“About two weeks old," says he of the spirit breath.
Just little babies, half a year away from breeding. They'll be dead long before then. My kids will squash em, or drown em, or lose em long before then.
42 year old father in charge of pocket money: "We want a male and female please"
Here's the thing. He looked so very confident. Drunk as he was, and we were leaning well back to get out of range of his acrid breath, he looked so competent and confident. He stared knowingly at their non existent genitals, prodded some flesh apart with his fingers, and dropped a male and female into a box.
Then he conned me into buying sawdust, food, water dispensers, food bowls, and little orange MSG hamster snacks (which looked surprisingly tasty, but, truth be told, when I experimentally ate one it tasted like cardboard)
And that was it. Deal done. We skipped the movie. We skipped the bowling. We headed happily home with the hamsters and spent an enjoyable hour or two digging an old hamster cage out of storage and turning it into a cosy and warm nest complete with sawdust and MSG nibble snacks.
She: "This one looks pregnant dad"
Me (patronising): "Hamsters are all fat my love. She's too small to be pregnant, but maybe one day she will have babies"
We go to sleep a warm and loving house. I am definitely too scared to phone the news through to my wife in person, and instead send off a short good night SMS mentioning two new hamsters. I get no response.
Now. This is the true part. Without guile or exaggeration.
The next morning the fat two-week old baby had had five babies and was a proud mother.
Without the compounding of time for the sake of a good story. One setting and rising of the sun.
When we woke up the next morning we had seven hamsters and not two.
My daughter was very excited and went straight off to phone her mom with the good news.
Me, not so. I was keeping away from my phone and I was starting to think this may not have been such a good idea after all.
The next night as we were about to go to sleep, my daughter, having spent half her evening examining the blind, pink and ugly brood, came and told me that the other hamster, the dad hamster, the father hamster, the male hamster, was making a nest, and not only that, but his breasts were swollen as well.
Silly irritating child. She spends too much of her time talking to the fairies.
The next day. Day two since we bought male and female baby hamsters. Less than 48 hours after having left the pet shop. The father hamster, the dad, the male. He of the swollen breasts. Well, he decided to have babies too. And not just one either. Six of them. Gospel truth. Not a lie in there. Cross my heart.
Pinkie promise. In two days we had gone from two hamsters to thirteen hamsters.
And that was my saving grace. That was why my wife let me live when she got back. It was that bad, and that unbelievable, it was that shocking, that it was funny.
Epilogue:
The children’s mother got back and immediately decided that the next day we were taking all the babies back to the pet shop. The children’s father hid out pottering in the shed.
That evening the children’s father experimentally snuck one of the babies out the cage and fed it to the snake (this is our actual pet snake that eats live mice). He figured that he was saving fifty bucks on petrol going to buy mice for the snake, and that these hamsters were going back to the pet shop anyway and nobody would notice one or two missing in the rush. However the next morning his sharp eyed children spotted that one was missing and the children’s father was forced to secretly run into the garden, dig up some earth, drop some flowers on the mound, and confirm that one had died and that he had buried it (fingers crossed, even though the dying part was true).
That left 12.
The children’s quite cross mother took ten back to the pet shop. (Actually the pet shop was still closed when she got there so she left all ten with the rather intimidated owner of the liquor store next door and sternly instructed him to give them to the pet shop owner when he got in)
That left 2.
Within a day, one had escaped and has never been seen since.
That left 1.
The next day, the final one, got out the cage. It was caught by the cat, who brought it downstairs to play with its kill. Then it was taken away from the cat, by the dog, and was found wet and half dead in the mouth of the dog by my six year old daughter. In tears, she brought it to me, gasping convulsively in her hand. I explained to her that the hamster must have fallen down the stairs and badly injured itself, and the dog was trying to save its life by bringing it to us it its mouth. (Fingers crossed) We wrapped it warmly in loo paper (double ply) and left it comatose in a shoe box next to our bed close to the wall heater. It made lots of shuffling sounds in the night. In the morning it was as stiff as a plank.
That left none.
Last Wednesday I went to buy baby mice for the snake to eat. They didn’t have any, and rather than waste the trip I came home with a smallish white rat. Not small enough though.
We ended up in front of the hamster cages and I was thinking that, “Wow, for ten Rand they ARE cheap.”
I thought that one would sell for at least twenty Rand. So obviously I, the adult and father then said: "Lets take two. A male and a female. Then they can mate"
I mean it seemed kind of cool at the time and not such a bad idea.
I should probably have been concerned that the shop assistant smelled of booze. But it was Easter and I figured well, drunk or not, he knew more than I did about sexing hamsters.
"How old are these?” I ask
“About two weeks old," says he of the spirit breath.
Just little babies, half a year away from breeding. They'll be dead long before then. My kids will squash em, or drown em, or lose em long before then.
42 year old father in charge of pocket money: "We want a male and female please"
Here's the thing. He looked so very confident. Drunk as he was, and we were leaning well back to get out of range of his acrid breath, he looked so competent and confident. He stared knowingly at their non existent genitals, prodded some flesh apart with his fingers, and dropped a male and female into a box.
Then he conned me into buying sawdust, food, water dispensers, food bowls, and little orange MSG hamster snacks (which looked surprisingly tasty, but, truth be told, when I experimentally ate one it tasted like cardboard)
And that was it. Deal done. We skipped the movie. We skipped the bowling. We headed happily home with the hamsters and spent an enjoyable hour or two digging an old hamster cage out of storage and turning it into a cosy and warm nest complete with sawdust and MSG nibble snacks.
She: "This one looks pregnant dad"
Me (patronising): "Hamsters are all fat my love. She's too small to be pregnant, but maybe one day she will have babies"
We go to sleep a warm and loving house. I am definitely too scared to phone the news through to my wife in person, and instead send off a short good night SMS mentioning two new hamsters. I get no response.
Now. This is the true part. Without guile or exaggeration.
The next morning the fat two-week old baby had had five babies and was a proud mother.
Without the compounding of time for the sake of a good story. One setting and rising of the sun.
When we woke up the next morning we had seven hamsters and not two.
My daughter was very excited and went straight off to phone her mom with the good news.
Me, not so. I was keeping away from my phone and I was starting to think this may not have been such a good idea after all.
The next night as we were about to go to sleep, my daughter, having spent half her evening examining the blind, pink and ugly brood, came and told me that the other hamster, the dad hamster, the father hamster, the male hamster, was making a nest, and not only that, but his breasts were swollen as well.
Silly irritating child. She spends too much of her time talking to the fairies.
The next day. Day two since we bought male and female baby hamsters. Less than 48 hours after having left the pet shop. The father hamster, the dad, the male. He of the swollen breasts. Well, he decided to have babies too. And not just one either. Six of them. Gospel truth. Not a lie in there. Cross my heart.
Pinkie promise. In two days we had gone from two hamsters to thirteen hamsters.
And that was my saving grace. That was why my wife let me live when she got back. It was that bad, and that unbelievable, it was that shocking, that it was funny.
Epilogue:
The children’s mother got back and immediately decided that the next day we were taking all the babies back to the pet shop. The children’s father hid out pottering in the shed.
That evening the children’s father experimentally snuck one of the babies out the cage and fed it to the snake (this is our actual pet snake that eats live mice). He figured that he was saving fifty bucks on petrol going to buy mice for the snake, and that these hamsters were going back to the pet shop anyway and nobody would notice one or two missing in the rush. However the next morning his sharp eyed children spotted that one was missing and the children’s father was forced to secretly run into the garden, dig up some earth, drop some flowers on the mound, and confirm that one had died and that he had buried it (fingers crossed, even though the dying part was true).
That left 12.
The children’s quite cross mother took ten back to the pet shop. (Actually the pet shop was still closed when she got there so she left all ten with the rather intimidated owner of the liquor store next door and sternly instructed him to give them to the pet shop owner when he got in)
That left 2.
Within a day, one had escaped and has never been seen since.
That left 1.
The next day, the final one, got out the cage. It was caught by the cat, who brought it downstairs to play with its kill. Then it was taken away from the cat, by the dog, and was found wet and half dead in the mouth of the dog by my six year old daughter. In tears, she brought it to me, gasping convulsively in her hand. I explained to her that the hamster must have fallen down the stairs and badly injured itself, and the dog was trying to save its life by bringing it to us it its mouth. (Fingers crossed) We wrapped it warmly in loo paper (double ply) and left it comatose in a shoe box next to our bed close to the wall heater. It made lots of shuffling sounds in the night. In the morning it was as stiff as a plank.
That left none.
Last Wednesday I went to buy baby mice for the snake to eat. They didn’t have any, and rather than waste the trip I came home with a smallish white rat. Not small enough though.
It was too big for the snake to eat, so we put it into the hamsters’ cage.
We still have the rat and I can send you a photo if you don’t believe me.
Moral of the story:
Moral of the story:
Never give any responsibility or a wallet to a 42 year old man with a 10 year old boy trapped inside his body.
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