Supergirl's Tale

Supergirl was last year's class pet in DuckyBoy's first grade class. She is a Chinese drawf hamster, light brown with a darker stripe running down the center of her back. At fast glance, she looks like a mouse. Only up closer do you notice the stripe and her short, nonmouselike tail.



Her first week in the classroom, before she had been named, she bent the bars of her wire cage (which was supposed to be safe for small animals of course) and, on a Friday morning, escaped.

When the teachers and children arrived, they had to be very still and look for her in their second-floor (this matters later on) room. But she did not appear!

So the day went on.

Later in the morning, one of the kindergarten teachers on the first floor called maintenance: She had seen a mouse!

Fortunately, the science teacher who was in charge of the search for the missing hamster got wind of this, and arrived in the classroom to find the kindergarten teacher ready to throw a book at, not a mouse, but the hamster!

With the help of a pile of sunflower seeds and a small cage, the science teacher capture the hamster and returned her to her classroom -- first in a large aquarium tank, and then by Monday she'd returned the wire cage in favor of a safer plastic cage.

Interestingly enough, the male hamster in the cage did not escape, and presumably slept through it all.

On Monday it was time to pick names. The boy was named "Brian," and the name "Supergirl" won hands-down for the girl.

And that is how Supergirl got her name!

In the spring, she had babies. They were tiny and bald and blind and slept in a muddle in the corner of the cage. The mommy and babies were removed from the main cage for a while, until the babies were bigger.

When the little family was reunited with Brian the daddy hamster, he apparently went after the babies, whereupon Supergirl went after him.

He was promptly removed and never seen again. (The story is he was returned to the pet store. I don't even wanna know if that's a euphemism or not, but I'm sure the science teacher wouldn't hurt him.)

When summer came the science teacher asked for volunteers to take al the class pets home over the summer. Supergirl came home with us and, as is my wont, we promptly spoiled her with fluff, felt, and tubes to run through and sleep in. Oh, and watermelon seeds and a big play area for when we cleaned her cage. And an exercise ball to run around the house in (supervised, of course).

Guess what! I took her back today, and DuckyBoy will soon start to earn a hamster of his very own. I thought it would be one of Supergirl's babies from last spring, but he's already in a classroom -- so once DuckyBoy earns her with enough good-behavior stickers, we will get Supergirl back for good! [Edited from earlier when I said we might get her or her baby -- guess the science teacher decided this would be best all around!]

I'm so excited.