Hamster Drama

We have had some hamster drama the last 24 hours. Last night Andrew Nicole and I came home from Sparks at church and Nicole had asked to play with her hamster. I said yes, for five minutes, as it was late and time to go to bed. Well, in just a few minutes the next thing I knew is that Nicole said little Jakey Babe was gone!!! After much weeping and gnashing of teeth and a little FREAK OUT from Mom, I heard from both kids that Shadow (our nearly 100 pound black lab Dalmatian mix beast of a dog) had eaten Jake!!!! Poor little Nicole went to bed absolutely distraught. Me and Andrew and Nicole all cuddled up after the "incident" on Nicole's bed and she fell asleep. Dad had not been home yet, he was out having a little much deserved guy time. I asked Andrew over and over, "So you saw Jake in Shadow's mouth?" Big eyes, nodding head up and down, even pantomimed a big swallow for emphasis! =0/ So little Nicole and I headed out to the pet store this morning to get a new hamster friend. She was excited and glad to have her own hamster again. Tonight after we got home from our day, I noticed that Shadow was much more interested than normal about sniffing around Nicole's bedroom. Steve came in and looked around, found some suspicious rodent droppings, looked under the bed and around the room, and found nothing. I set out a little food and water on a tray, just in case there was a wayward little critter, and then we found some more droppings, and Steve just "followed the hamster poop" and ended up finding the little stinker in Nicole's closet!!!! So now we have three hamsters. We luckily had more cage pieces from our friend, and so now we have put together a three level hamster cage, with a little jerry rigging as well! It is pretty cute. So, welcome Kyra to the family, along with the wayward prodigal son, Jake, and the befuddled Buddy.