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Thursday, January 31, 2019

Come In, Saint Anthony

He is the patron saint you call when you lost something and need to find it.

I lost the pet, the tiny Russian hamster, Mochi.

He's only been here since early January, when Fig's friend moved to Chicago and needed a home for Moch. Punchy was delighted.

I woke around 2:30 a.m. to go to the bathroom. As I often do if I'm up in the dark, I went into Punch's room to be sure she had enough covers on. I added the striped fleece one on top. As we all heard on the news, the temp was dropping to single digits overnight.

Mochi's cage is near a window, and I often pull it away a little because drafts can come through.

This time, I pulled the whole little table from the window, afraid Moch might somehow freeze.

A piece of that colorful plastic cage tubing fell off. I put it back on the table, not wanting to turn the light on and wake Punch. I didn't realize it was part of the maze Moch lives/lived in. Fig & Punch have separate treat sacks, balls, etc. that they put the hamster in temporarily, when cleaning his cage, etc. Plus, I was blurry-eyed and exhausted.

Punch woke up calling, Annie, come up right now. Mochi is gone. Annie!

I screwed up big time, but with good intentions. I was trying to keep Punch and Mochi warm on a frigid night, and now we don't know where he is.

Mom, he could literally be anywhere in the house, Fig said.

She set a few of those safe mouse traps with his treats in Punchy's bedroom, but I don't have high hopes. I feel terrible.

Oh, and I also lost something else this morning. My patience in the face of a fifth grader's defiance to wear her college sister's adult-cut shirt to school--and my ability to be present.

Good luck to us all. Two-hour school delay due to cold.

2 comments:

  1. Best of intentions. Not really your fault. But still agonizing, so sorry. Hope the little guy turns up. (At least he's a hamster, Clara's snake once got loose in the house and I had a hard time bringing myself to even look.)

    Hope.

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    1. Oh, Nan....thank you. He is so tiny, I don't know if we will ever find him. Sad. oh my god, did find the snake? Oy vey. Gosh....was the snake out of tank for cleaning, or slithered out? xoxoxo

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