The missing hamster

Luckily for me, the hamster is not real, it is one of Eloise's toys.

Weekend before last Eloise bought a Zhu Zhu toy hamster (it is on wheels and makes funny little noises - very cute and much less hassle than a real one!), then nanny paid for lots of accessories, so she now has a little home for it, complete with play wheel, beds, babies and pram - lucky Eloise.

Towards the end of last week Eloise was looking for the hamster without any luck.   Everything else was all together, but just no sign of the hamster.  We had a big search for it, with me asking the usual 'I can't find ......' questions:

"When did you last play with it" - "when Rebecca came to play" (this was on Saturday)
"Where did you last see it" - "Charlie had it" (Charlie came to play on Wednesday)
"Where did Charlie have it" - "in the bedroom"
"Are you sure that Charlie had it last" - "yes"
"And you haven't played with it since then" - "no"

So big search continued for another hour - but no sign of it anywhere.  Eloise is so good though, I explained that she would have to wait and ask Charlie at school on Monday if she can remember where it was - by the look on her face she wasn't happy about that, but I think she knew that I had had enough searching by then!

Anyway, that was that.  The next day another friend came to play and just happened to bring their little hamster with them.  Eloise got out the house and they started playing - well by then I was feeling pretty sorry for her, to the stage where I was even considering popping out and buying her a new one.  No - I thought - so off I went, back upstairs to the black hole of a bedroom, to have another look.

I re-checked all the places again and I started to think that maybe someone else had taken the little hamster home with them - how dreadful is that - but I just didn't know where it could be.

I started to pack away some polly pocket toys.  Eloise has a set of hanging canvas shelves, that dangle under her bed (she has a high bed) - we usually keep bags, purses and belts in here.  Next to that is the polly pocket tub.  I got out the tub, put the toys in, was just sliding it away when I saw a little glimpse of fur - wrapped in a little orange blanket.  What a relief - I had found the blasted thing!

I then felt really dreadful for thinking that someone else could have taken this home with them, but then happy that I could let Eloise have her hamster back.  Off I toodled downstairs to give her the good news.

Taadaa - I said - and explained where I found him. "Aaaahhhh - now I remember" was the reply, "I put him to bed there".

Well, you can just imagine what I wanted to say - but we had company - luckily for Eloise!!!!

Oh - and I made a card, which I forgot to post just now!