[yorkietalkjilly]

Speaking of escape artists, here is a funny, true story:

When my son was young and we lived in Houston, often on Friday nights we would fly to Dallas and visit my parents for the night or sometimes the weekend. One day we stopped at the dime store who had a small pet section and they had hamsters and on a whim and as a result of Danny's begging very effectively, I bought him a hamster and they packed it up in its little cardboard carrier complete with little air holes. I was thinking that once in Dallas, we could stop by a big pet store and buy a hamster habitat, food, etc., and do the set-up at my parents' home and then put that habitat in my big purse-carrier for the flight home. This was before all the airport security we live through today.

Halfway through the flight, after Danny had nodded off as he often did on planes, I heard a funny scratchy sound and looked at the box. To my horror, I saw these little teeth biting through the air holes and very quickly and effectively enlarging one as I watched! There was one hole beside that one that was already double its original size! I panicked, thinking the dang thing could eat its way out of there in no time at this rate and could only imagine the panic among the women should it get loose and run throughout the plane. And I worried that if I mentioned it to the stewardess, we might get in trouble with the FAA. We had actually smuggled the box on the plane in my large purse-type carrier!

I woke Danny and we tried putting our hands over the holes but the teeth hurt and we couldn't do that. We had to watch for other passengers walking by and the stewardesses as they passed or asked if we needed anything and quickly cover the box. Finally, I requested a blanket and we kept pressing that over the holes as best we could while trying not to suffocate out new little hamster and yet we could hear that constant gnawing sound all the while. It was the most nerve-racking flight I have ever taken! Thankfully, the plane finally made its way to Dallas and we landed, deplaned, got our car and made it to the pet store, as Danny held various articles from my purse over the holes after we had to leave the blanket on the plane. By the time we carried that cardboard box into the pet store, it had many very big holes in it and it was only moments more before one of them would have been big enough for that hamster to get right through. The pet store attendant that sold us the proper equipment could not stop laughing during the entire sale and wanted to keep the hole-filled cardboard carrier!

The trip home was far less eventful with the little hamster in a proper little habitat in my big purse-carrier and then he got a really nice, big, big one when we got back home in Houston! I think he even escaped a time or two from that habitat! But thank goodness he didn't escape while on that plane!!! We would have been all over the news probably!