Displaced Hamsters!

Today was devoted to rodents. COMPLETELY!

When I'm ill, the first thing I do when I get better is to attend to my rodents. When I've been busy and had to give them minimal attention, the first thing I do on my first free holiday day is to give them the attention they deserve (they deserve A LOT, since they give me so much pleasure and I love them so much).

So, after breakfast I started on the hamsters. Laura and Robbie were both put into their travel carriers (blue for the girl, and pink for the boy), and put into the bedroom so they could get a bit of peace and quiet for sleeping.

I then dismantled both cages completely, threw away the old bedding, and cleaned EVERYTHING. I took all Laura's tubes apart, cleaned the fiddly bits with an old toothbrush, cleaned the whole lot in the bath using a hot shower, then dried it all thorougly, and eventually put it all back together again with fresh bedding and new food and water. I also gave Robbie's wheel a really good scrub because he doesn't like to stop exercising to have a wee, so it gets a bit messy - just imagine how much trouble we'd get into if we did that on the treadmills at the gym - you can get away with much more when you're only about 5cm long and so cute (and have an indulgent human who takes care of your every need).

Then I put both hamsters back into their homes, which they then set about exploring and excavating, ensuring that they were absolutely perfect - they have pretty clear ideas of how they like things, and who am I to argue - I just watch what they do and try to provide everything they need.

I had a break - it's quite tiring work. The Wonderspouse made me a fishfinger sandwich for lunch! Hurrah!

Then, in the afternoon I did it all again, on a MUCH larger scale. The rats were put in their carrier (and they like to stay on my desk and watch proceedings - they KNOW that carrier stay means clean cage and new goodies, and they're always interested to watch what's going on), and I completely dismantled the rat cage and cleaned every inch of it, taking away their towels and cozy bits to be washed, getting rid of the soiled bedding, putting in new, even moving the shelves around and taking every single tube and so on out and rearranging and cleaning thoroughly.

While I had the cage out, I also got (from the store place behind the cage, that is only accessible when the cage is out) all the spare bits and pieces out and put them to one side ready for the new boys! I've already assembled their cage, and will make sure that it's completely perfect for them when they arrive!

After drying, reassembling and so on, Charlie and Moses went back in to their cage, and spent their usual hour or so checking my work and making sure it was all in order. Moses was delighted to discover that, owing to the new position of one of the sputniks, he can drink from the "upstairs" water bottle without even getting up!

And so, after a full day of hard physical work, four rodents were utterly delighted with three perfectly clean cages.

One human was exhausted.

The landing was covered in pet bedding.

The bathroom was full of pet carriers and old pet bedding.

And my study looked like the aftermath of an explosion in a pet store!

So, the evening that might have been spent doing my Welsh assignment was spent getting my study into SOME sort of order!

I e-mailed my tutor telling her that the assignment would be a day late.

I was too tired to hoover though - so most of the mess stayed!

And so finished the first day of a "relaxing" holiday!