Remember this guy?
He’s my class pet at school and I’ve chatted about him once or twice. He comes to live with us over the long breaks, and he’s basically the sweetest hamster in the history of ever. I love him.
One Friday a couple of weeks ago, one of my kids when to get him out of his cage and suddenly, panicked, shouted that he wasn’t there. I came to double check (because, seriously, where else would he be?) and sure enough, no Sparky.
We spent a good chunk of that day looking for him, and I left the cage on the ground with some extra food overnight hoping to entice him back in, but no luck. Though, when I got back to work on Monday some of the food was missing, which hinted that he was still hanging around.
We looked for him on and off all day on Monday (and I sent an email out to all of the other teachers at our school, ensuring that pretty much the entire campus was searching for him!) with no luck.
But then I came to work on Tuesday and found this:
and immediately texted this photo to Corey:
My kids were completely thrilled to have him back, and we spent most of our morning making thank you notes to leave for our sweet janitor. It was a pretty fantastic start to my Tuesday morning, and it made the whole week a little bit better – we even spent more than a few writing sessions over the week coming up with creative stories about how Sparky spent his time while he was free! I’m so glad our little Sparky is home!
Did you have a class pet growing up? Ever have one escape?!
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Comments on this post
Love this story, and your pics.
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26. February - 7:45 amThat note from the Janitor is so cute! I had a similar experience with a hamster I bought in college. I had taken him home over the summer, and my dad took him out to play with him, but forgot about him. We couldn’t find him for a few days, until we discovered that he had found the mouse poison under the sink. So that was the end of my hamster days. So glad your story had a happy ending!
P.S. Those thank you notes are precious!
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Amanda Reply:
February 26th, 2013 at 4:52 pm
Aw, so sad! I had hamsters growing up, and more than a few of them got eaten by our cat…pretty traumatizing as a child!
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Awww, cute story! I love hamsters, although I wasn’t allowed to have one growing up. Glad Alonso found him!
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26. February - 9:29 amSo glad he is back!!
“I catch the mouse” that note is amazing!!!
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26. February - 9:52 amThose hamsters are sneaky!
Growing up we had one that got out of his cage while we were on vacation. He somehow got into the bath tub!
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Amanda Reply:
February 26th, 2013 at 4:44 pm
Oh my gosh, that’s hilarious! I was amazed that Sparky didn’t break every bone in his body jumping off the higher-than-countertop-level counter he was on!
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Your pictures are perfect for the story. I’m so glad it had a happy ending.
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26. February - 12:25 pmHow cute is this?! I loved the class pets we had in elementary school, and was always so sad when one would “pass away”. So exciting that you got sparky back (and what a great way to tie in class writing and thank you notes! (smart cookie, you).
What grade do you teach?
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Amanda Reply:
February 26th, 2013 at 4:43 pm
I teach special education – I work with students with autism – so I have kids in grades 1-3.
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Yay Sparky! I’m glad he made it home safe and sound! This story makes me think you are an excellent teacher for tying Sparky into your lessons!
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27. February - 2:09 pm