Greg Chaffins 
Back in the day I remember wanting one of the LivingWorld Habitrail Hamster Sets. Well, that’s not true – I wanted a bunch of them, maybe 20 or so, all connected together and ran throughout the house. I wanted it laid out so that the hamster could visit relatives in the neighboring county all through those cool yellow plastic tubes.
Sure, I was using my imagination, but wouldn’t it have been cool?
Watchtower Turned Outhouse
In time I did have a set, along with some probably off market accessories. I remember adding in a watch tower of sorts, in which I pictured our mighty hamster pal climbing up to the top and waving at the humans as we walked by. But reality had a different plan in mind, and the attempt at a luxury penthouse turned into a hamster outhouse.
Yes, our open hamster decided, in what was no doubt a stunning example of hamster logic, to use the remote space as a bathroom. I mean, I get it, it was far removed from the living and feeding areas so it was easy to manage. But it was disappointing nonetheless.
We compromised and accepted our pet’s wishes, along with the fact that it was actually easier to open the lid and clean it than it was the main cage.
The Infamous Hamster Ball
After that experience I was hesitant to provide more overpriced hamster outhouse space, but the device known as a hamster ball caught my attention. In theory this sounded perfect, we could let Hammy (okay, not the most imaginative name) go on the road and explore at his leisure, yellow tube contraptions not needed.
But hamsters do what hamsters do, and it too became a hamster outhouse. Only this time on wheels, or at least one big wheel. It became especially messy after a little exploration time. It’s amazing how well hamster and refuse can mix in a ball after a few revolutions.
Hamster Castle
Looking back, I wonder if we had a habit of overfeeding Hammy. That could explain his propensity to mark his territory as he traveled about. And he looked so cute with his face stuffed full of hamster chow as he carried it about. But it wasn’t all bad. In fact, some of the most fun we had was building a hamster castle to explore out of legos.
It started out as a maze to see how well he could navigate his way through our devious maze planning. But that didn’t work out, because he would give up and just hang out in a comfortable spot. So we started just building cool hang out places, and that worked out well.
He would even go up and down steps as he explored the non-maze castles. And surprisingly, he would not have accidents when working with Legos. I don’t know why he had that particular behavior, but it certainly made it nicer and even encouraged more Lego hamster castles to be built.
We didn’t leave him too long in a newly constructed Lego domain (which may have contributed to an accident free experience), because you never know when he was going to try to chew on one. For the record, he never did. But his habit of running on the wheel in the dead of night made up for it. But that’s a different story…
