What's new at our zoo

On Christmas Eve, my sister-in-law pulled me aside to tell me that Santa was bringing a hamster for one of my twin nephews, Jack. She asked if we could hamster sit for the two weeks that they'll all be in Florida. I said, sure, why not? We've got two fish, two cats and a dog ... we've got more than enough room at our zoo.

Well, last week I asked Jack how his hamster, whom he named Clarice, is. I guess Santa had a trick up his sleeve when he brought Clarice down the chimney at their home on Christmas. Clarice was pregnant, they soon learned, and delivered four babies! Yikes! My sister-in-law was livid and called the pet store, which graciously said they would take back any hamster babies they didn't want. Erika was there when we were talking about the hamster babies and she instantly wanted one...and I'm a softie so I told her it was OK.

Well, I got a call from Jack's twin brother, Luke, today at work and he told me that his mom said it was OK if he adopted one of Clarice's babies and asked if we could hamster sit for two weeks for him, too. I said, sure, why not? The more the merrier.

My sister-in-law told me that she would be going back to the pet store to sex the furry babies and they would be taking a female one for Luke. No more reproduction lessons for her third-graders. Then they'd leave one of the babies there and bring the three hamsters, including Erika's baby hamster, to our house for 2 weeks. (The fourth hamster baby, the runt of the litter, apparently died. Or was eaten by its mother, my sister-in-law said. Ewwww. Such is life, I guess, for furry rodents.)

I'm hosting our annual Christmas gathering for my high school friends at my house a week later so it'll be pretty interesting to have 3 hamster cages lined up in a row in our guest bedroom.

Maybe we could charge admission for our little zoo.