The Abandoned Hamster

by Tina Nolan

  Something’s in there for sure, she thought. And it’s pretty scared, otherwise it wouldn’t bite. It’s tiny. A mouse or a baby squirrel maybe.

  With her heart beating faster, she prised off the lid of the bin and peered inside.

  The bin was almost full of litter and at first Eva couldn’t make out the creature that had nipped her finger. All she could see were shiny chocolate wrappers and crushed crisp packets, empty plastic bags and old newspapers. Wait a minute!

  There was a rolled-up newspaper near the top of the pile. Two tiny black eyes peeped out of one end. Eva took a step closer and saw a brown face and a pair of round pink ears.

  “A hamster!” Eva breathed. “Hello! What are you doing in here?”

  At that second, the hamster saw Eva and shot back down the tunnel of newspaper. Quick as a flash, Eva lifted the roll out of the bin and blocked both ends. The hamster was trapped inside.

  “Dad!” she yelled. “Grandad! Come quick!”

  The two men had reached the far end of the garden centre but they came running when Eva called. “What’s up?” her dad wanted to know.

  “I found a hamster in the rubbish bin!” she cried. “Somebody dumped him and left him to die!”

  Back at Animal Magic, Karl brushed up on hamster facts on the internet. “Syrian hamster. Sometimes known as golden hamster. Scientific name – Mesocric … Mesocricetus…”

  “Auratus,” Joel told him. He’d just turned the rescued hamster upside down, checked and told them it was a male.

  “So cute!” Eva said. “How could anyone dump him like a piece of rubbish?”

  “Syrian hamsters can grow up to 18 centimetres,” Karl reported. “There are short and long haired varieties. Colours include golden, cream, cinnamon, yellow, black…”

  “This one is cinnamon banded,” Joel told them confidently. “See – he has a broad white band of fur around his middle.”

  “Look at his little pink feet!” Eva cooed. “And his pink ears – aah!”

  “Bring him a cage,” Joel told her. “You’ll find one the right size in the storeroom outside the small animals unit. Spread plenty of wood shavings in the bottom, and make sure that you fill a water bottle for him. He’s bound to be thirsty after his adventure.”

  “I wonder how long he was in the bin,” Karl muttered.

  Holding the hamster carefully in the palm of his hand, Joel gently stroked him. “He’s certainly used to being handled. Nice and tame. Doesn’t nip.”

  “Want to bet?” Eva asked as she brought back the cage. “He bit me when I first put my hand in the bin!”

  “What do you expect? You’d bite too if a giant hand suddenly tried to grab you!” Karl said, grinning.

  “I think he’s been well looked after,” Joel insisted. “So it’s a mystery how he came to end up in the rubbish bin.”

  “Anyway, what are we going to call him?” Already Karl was planning the wording for the website entry – “Syrian hamster. Owner didn’t want him. Lonely and looking for a loving home.”

  Eva stroked the tiny hamster with the tip of her forefinger. “He needs a cute name so people will notice him.”

  “Goldie,” Joel suggested. “Peter, Fred, Hammy?”

  But Eva shook her head. “None of those suit him.”

  Gently Joel lowered the newcomer into his cage and closed the door. The hamster blinked then scampered towards the water bottle.

  “How about Harry?” Karl suggested.

  “Harry?” As Eva tested it out, the little hamster turned his head and twitched his ears. “Harry!” Eva laughed. “He likes it. Harry it is!”

  “Dumped!” Eva insisted to Annie Brooks. She was sitting on her neighbour’s fence, watching Mickey graze alongside Rosie, Guinevere and Merlin. The mare and her foal belonged to the Brookses. Rosie, the little Shetland, was staying at Animal Magic until they re-homed her, but was allowed to share the field along with Mickey.

  Annie was amazed. “You mean, the hamster was just dropped into your grandad’s rubbish bin and left there?”

  “Left to die!” Eva frowned and shook her head. “I’m surprised the shock didn’t kill poor Harry. And if I hadn’t found him when I did, he would soon have starved or ended up in a dustcart! He’s OK now, though. Joel checked him over and we gave him a nice comfy cage.”

  In the distance Mickey raised his head and let out an ear-splitting bray. The ponies kicked up their heels and galloped to a safe distance.

  “So who dumped Harry?” Annie asked.

  Eva shrugged. “I don’t know. But I aim to find out. Do you want to help?”

  Annie nodded eagerly. “Where do we begin?”

  “At Grandad’s place. We’ll pick up the trail from the start. Right now!”

  Annie jumped from the fence into her back garden. “I’ll just tell Mum where we’re going,” she said. “Wait here. I’ll be back in a second.”

  “You’re welcome to try, but I think you’ve got a difficult job on your hands.” Jimmy Harrison had listened patiently to Eva and Annie’s plan, but now he shook his head. “It could have been any one of a hundred people who dropped the poor little thing into the bin. I had lots of customers yesterday.”

  “I know that, Grandad, but I hoped you’d be able to remember a few details.” Eva wasn’t put off. She was dead set on identifying Harry’s owner. “For instance, when did you last empty the rubbish bin?”

  “And was there anyone hanging around yesterday who looked suspicious?” Annie added.

  Eva’s grandad wrinkled his nose. “Let me see now. Oh, you mean the chap wearing the black mask and the striped jumper, carrying a sack marked ‘Swag’ over his shoulder…”

  “Grandad!” Eva groaned. “It’s important. We want to find out who did this to poor Harry, and make sure they don’t do it again.”

  “So you’re turning into two young Sherlock Holmeses.” Jimmy Harrison sat down at the counter. “OK, let me think. Most of yesterday’s customers were people I know well – locals. I don’t think any of them would be likely to abandon Harry.”

  “What about the customers you didn’t know?” Eva asked. “Was anyone hanging about near the bin?” As she quizzed her grandad, she saw an unwelcome visitor hovering outside the entrance. It was Katie Platt, half hidden by a tall tree, but peeping round at Eva, then ducking out of sight when she realized she’d been spotted.

  “Hang on a minute.” Her grandad broke off to serve a customer.

  “Did you see that?” Eva whispered to Annie. “Katie Platt is spying on us!”

  “Katie who?” Annie hadn’t heard about the new family at Ash Tree Manor.

  Just then, Katie leaned back into view, but she quickly ducked out of sight again.

  “That’s her!” Eva hissed. “You must know who I mean. She’s the new girl in Mr Hawkes’s class at school.”

  “Oh yes, her,” Annie nodded.

  “What’s she up to? Why is she hiding?” Eva murmured.

  Annie had no time to answer before a dark-haired woman in white trousers and a bright-pink shirt appeared in the entrance.

  “Come on, Katie, don’t hang back. Bring Bonnie and Clyde with you!” the woman said as she approached the counter where Jimmy had just finished serving a customer.

  Reluctantly the fair-haired girl appeared from behind the tree with the two Dalmatians. They wagged their tails and tugged Katie along, snuffling into every corner.

  “Mr Harrison?” the woman said in a friendly voice.

  “That’s me,” Eva’s grandad answered curtly. He was gearing up for another argument.

  “I’m Julia Platt, your new neighbour. I believe you’ve already met my husband Mike, and Katie, plus our two dogs.”

  “You could say that,” Jimmy sniffed. “We didn’t get off on a very good footing, I’m afraid.”

  Mrs Platt nodded. “Katie told me all about Bonnie and Clyde and the damage they caused. I felt I ought to pop by to apologize.”

  Wow! Eva stared at Mrs Platt, then at Ka
tie, who still looked as if she didn’t want to be there.

  “My husband has a lot on his mind right now,” Julia Platt went on. “Our move into the manor house didn’t go as smoothly as we’d hoped, and yesterday we had to deal with a broken boiler and no plumber would come out because it was Saturday – well, all I can say is that, frankly, Mike was not in the best of moods!”

  Jimmy nodded. “That’s all right. We won’t worry any more about the incident with the dogs. We’ve cleared everything up and my son and I are sure we can fix the fence, no problem.”

  “But you must let me pay!” Where her husband had been rude and unreasonable, Mrs Platt was sweet and helpful. “And I have to apologize again about Bonnie and Clyde’s behaviour. They’re young dogs, you see, and we only recently got them from an animal rescue centre in our old town. It turns out they hadn’t been well trained by their previous owner.”

  By now Eva’s grandad was nodding and smiling and the two grown-ups were getting along nicely. Only Katie Platt still looked uncomfortable as she made the Dalmatians stand by the rubbish bin, keeping them on a tight lead.

  “You should talk to my granddaughter here,” Jimmy was telling Julia Platt. “I’m sure Eva and her brother Karl would be able to help you with your dogs. They often retrain animals at Animal Magic, down on Main Street.”

  “Did you hear that, Katie?” Mrs Platt turned to her daughter. “Doesn’t that sound like a good idea?”

  Katie shrugged while Bonnie and Clyde pulled restlessly at their leads. They tugged so hard that Katie overbalanced and fell sideways against the rubbish bin. The whole thing toppled and fell to the ground.

  Woof-woof ! The startled dogs strained at their leads and broke free. They fled through the garden centre gates.

  “Oh no, not again!” Katie sighed. She ran to catch Bonnie and Clyde.

  “Oh dear!” Mrs Platt sighed. “I’m beginning to think those dogs are more trouble than they’re worth. Only, Katie is mad about animals – cats, dogs, rabbits, hamsters, you name it.”

  “Really?” Eva was surprised. Katie didn’t come across as the sort of kid who was mad about animals.

  “Yes. Believe me, she’d be heartbroken if we let Bonnie and Clyde go.”

  Woof-woof ! The two Dalmatians had raced next door and were rampaging down the garden.

  “Come here! Sit! Lie down!” a desperate Katie cried.

  “Did you say hamsters?” A sudden suspicion flashed into Eva’s mind.

  “Yes. Anything with fur and four legs.” Mrs Platt smiled wearily. She got ready to lend her daughter a hand with the boisterous dogs.

  “So does Katie have any other pets?” Eva asked, blocking Mrs Platt’s way. “Like a hamster, for instance? Does she have a hamster?”

  “Why, yes!” Julia Platt told her. Then she frowned. “Actually, no, not right now.”

  Yes or no? Which is it? Surely Mrs Platt must know.

  “Sorry, I’d better get back next door to sort out those dogs!” Julia said as she stepped past Eva.

  “What colour is Katie’s hamster?” Eva called after her.

  But Mrs Platt was in too much of a hurry to answer.

  “I bet I’m right!” Eva told Annie.

  “But you can’t be sure,” Annie argued. Eva had been explaining her Harry theory all the way back from the garden centre.

  “You must admit that it looks dead suspicious.” Eva headed for the surgery where Heidi was reading through the first applications for Joel’s job.

  “Eva thinks it was Katie Platt who dumped Harry,” Annie told Heidi.

  “Uh-oh, is Eva playing detective again?” Eva’s mum was too busy to pay much attention.

  “Of course!” Annie grinned. “Anyway, now she’s going to introduce me.”

  “That’s nice,” Heidi murmured. She clicked the mouse and read some details: “Jen Andrews. Age 26, trained in Dublin, special qualification in dental nursing. Hmm.”

  “Here he is, right at the end!” Eva announced, leading Annie into the small animals unit. The rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs and mice were lined up in clean, bright cages, each with a water bottle and a dish of special food.

  Annie followed Eva down the row of squeaking, burrowing creatures. They passed Hugo the friendly brown rabbit up at the bars of his cage, then Honey and Emily, two harlequin bunnies with black patches on their grey fur and black pom-pom tails. Then there were Lulu and Lucy the long-haired guinea pigs and Bernie the ferret peeping shyly out of his nest of straw.

  At the end of the row Eva carefully opened Harry’s cage. She reached in and picked him up.

  Little Harry blinked and twitched his ears. He took a sniff at Eva’s fingers and decided he was perfectly happy sitting in the palm of her hand.

  “Can I hold him?” Annie asked excitedly.

  Eva handed over the hamster.

  His little pink feet felt funny and scratchy, his brown and white furry body was soft and warm. “Will he bite?” Annie asked.

  “Not if you’re gentle and don’t make him jump.” Harry seemed used to people, and not easily scared, even after his ordeal in the rubbish bin. “He’s cute, isn’t he?”

  “Gorgeous!” Annie grinned. She pursed her lips and pretend-kissed the hamster. “Is he on the website yet?”

  Eva nodded. “Karl put him up as soon as we’d chosen his name.”

  “So, even if you’re right about Katie Platt, you don’t want to send him back to Ash Tree Manor?”

  “No way!” Eva took Harry from Annie and placed him back in his cage. Then she went to the fridge and took a slice of apple from a plastic container. “Hamster treat coming up!”

  “But if Katie is Harry’s real owner, shouldn’t you tell her where he is?” Annie saw trouble ahead if Eva rushed on and found Harry a new home.

  Eva pushed the slice of apple through the bars of Harry’s cage, then shook her head. She was one hundred per cent sure that her theory was right. “Katie abandoned him, didn’t she? She so doesn’t want him back!”

  “Even so.” Annie felt uncomfortable. “I guess she might have had a reason.”

  “Such as?” Eva couldn’t see it. “You saw what she was like, Annie. She’s just a feather-brained person who doesn’t take care of her pets. That’s why Harry’s not going back to Ash Tree Manor.”

  End of story. No ifs or buts.

  Back at school on Monday, Eva told as many people as possible about Harry the abandoned hamster, hoping to find him a new home.

  “He’s really cute and friendly,” she told Miss Jennings, her class teacher. “And ever so easy to look after.”

  “Sorry, Eva,” Miss Jennings said with a smile. “I can’t possibly give Harry a home. I go away to my house in France every school holiday, and who would look after him while I was away?”

  “Harry is brown and white, with furry ears and pink feet.” Eva described the hamster to Mrs Owen, one of the dinner ladies at Clifford Junior. “He doesn’t bite and he likes to be held.”

  Mary Owen stopped clearing dishes and listened carefully. “We did have a hamster once upon a time,” she said.

  “They’re ever so easy,” Eva rushed on. “You only have to clean out their cages and give them fresh water and food. If you give them a wheel to play in, that’s all the exercise they need!”

  Mary nodded. “I know. But my son, Matthew, is grown up now, so we don’t have any pets. Besides, they make my husband sneeze if he’s in the same room as them. So no, Eva, I’m afraid I can’t give Harry a home.”

  That afternoon on the way home, Annie sympathized with Eva on the school bus. “Never mind, you tried.”

  Eva sighed and stared out of the window at the hedges and fields beyond. “Trying isn’t enough. Honestly, Annie, I’ve got to find somewhere for Harry before…”

  “…Before Katie Platt finds out where he is, changes her mind and decides she wants him back?” Annie guessed. “Listen, Eva, I’d ask Mum if we could have Harry, only I’m sure she’ll say no.”

  L
inda Brooks had already adopted Guinevere and Merlin from Animal Magic and was letting Rosie and Mickey graze in her field. Annie knew that asking her mum to adopt Harry would be one step too far.

  As the bus pulled up at the Okeham stop, Annie and Eva piled off with the other village kids.

  “George, do you want to adopt a hamster?” Eva pounced on her brother’s best mate who had already given a home to Lucky the rabbit.

  “Nope,” he said, brushing her aside and setting off up Earlswood Avenue with mega-fanciable Emma Matthews.

  Karl overheard and tutted. “I already asked George.”

  “Tell your mum about Harry anyway,” Eva muttered to Annie as they said goodbye on Main Street.

  Inside Eva and Karl’s house Heidi was still going through job applications. She’d had five so far. “Which of these would you choose to interview?” she asked Karl and Eva, showing them the printouts. “Oh, by the way, I had a phone call from Julia Platt at Ash Tree Manor about Bonnie and Clyde. I told her you’d both be glad to help with dog-training classes for those two tearaways.”

  “You what!” Eva gasped.

  “Eva, close your mouth and speak properly,” Heidi told her. “It’s not ‘you what’, it’s ‘pardon’ if you didn’t hear properly, though I’m sure you did.”

  “The Platts aren’t Eva’s favourite family,” Karl explained. “But I reckon retraining the dogs would be cool. When do we begin?”

  “Tonight before supper,” Heidi said, still sifting through her papers. “In fact, you’d better set off now. I told Julia you’d be there by five.”

  “Sit!” Karl told Clyde in the field behind Gro-well. He made the arm gesture that went with the verbal command.

  The young Dalmatian sat down smartly on the grass.

  Click! Karl pressed the small training clicker then swiftly handed Clyde a tasty treat. Click-and-treat. It worked like magic.

  Eva stood with Bonnie until Clyde had got the hang of the “Sit” command. Once, twice, three times.