"Okie-dokie, Ham, I'm off to work!" said Jean, the hamster's owner, leaning down to where her green eyes were level with Ham's unusually large black ones. "See you later, buddy!" And with that, she was out the door.
Ham watched his owner leave, tilting his head to one side and squeaking, "Heke?" But once Jean had left, the brown hamster leapt up and made his way toward the cage door. Using both his paws, he grabbed the door and began to pull upwards. Eventually, after some effort, the door opened and Ham, letting out a squeak of surprise, was sent tumbling backwards.
"Squawk! Kraken sees a mouse! Kraken sees a mouse!"
Instantly up again, the male pet hamster raced out of the door of his cage and, glaring at the parrot in the cage hanging from some pole-like thing next to the end Jean's bed, said, "I'm a hamster. A hamster, you dumb bird." Turning around, Ham wiggled his short little tail at the bird. "See this? It's nothing like a mouse's tail. I've seen mice before and I'm not one of them." And with that, he leapt off the nightstand and disappeared behind the drawers on the other side of the room.
Having figured out how to get out of his cage and outside a few days ago, Ham was still unable to handle the amount of scents that greeted him when he landed in the flowers of his owner's garden. There were roses with thorns, tulips of many colors, and his favorites – sunflowers.
After 'combing' his ears using both paws, the brown hamster stood up and began to make his way out of the flowerbed.
Reaching the end of the long row of various colors, he made a dash for the edge, only to be stopped by a brown hamster that looked a bit like it, except with three earrings in both ears, a ribbon tied around its neck and a large white patch over its stomach. Not to mention it was also female.
"Hiya!" she squeaked, climbing down from the drooping flower stem she had been climbing up.
"Uhm… Hamha?" Ham said, tilting his head. It was more of a questioning hamha than a regular hamha. The female hamster giggled and replied, "Hey, you're kinda cute when you're confused!"
By now, the little hamster was nose to nose with him, staring at him with large black eyes, much like his. "What's your name? I'm Laura-ham! But my friends just call me Laura. Want to be friends?" Without waiting for Ham to answer any of her questions, Laura grabbed his paw and dragged him off, ignoring his protests.
"Come on, new friend! There's this really special place I want to show you!"
The two hadn't walked very far when Laura-ham stopped abruptly. Letting go of Ham's paw, she lifted her nose to the air and began to sniff around.
"Caught ya!"
A blur of white-and-gray leapt out of nowhere and tackled the smaller female hamster to the ground. After much tossing around on the ground, the two hamsters leapt up, both glaring at each other and panting.
And then the grey-and-white one burst out laughing. "Hahahaha! Still as unsuspecting as ever, eh, Laurie?" she asked after the laughter had subsided.
"Shut up, Chaba," Laura-ham growled, fiddling around with her ribbon's strings. "I actually tried to sniff you out this ti—Oof!"
"But trying just isn't good enough, Laurie!" Chuckling, Chaba, who had somehow ended up beside the poor little hamster, patted her back.
Hard.
A cloud of dust rose up from the ground when Laura-ham landed on the ground. Her breath momentarily being knocked out of her, she began to gasp wildly for air while writhing around like a worm. Once she had her breath back, the hamster leapt up and squeaked, "You're pushing it."
Sensing the building tension between the two girls, Ham leapt between them. Glancing at Laura-ham and Chaba, the tall brown hamster said, "Now, you guys, I don't think this is going to…"
Again, the grey-striped female was thrown into fits of laughter. "Heeheehee! Aw, come on! Let us have our – heeheehee! – fun!" she said in between giggles, falling flat on her behind. Laura-ham snorted in frustration and grabbed Ham's paw, beginning to drag him off until something caused her to trip and release her grip.
"Aw, tsk, tsk, Laurie! Ain't going to introduce me to your tall friend here? How rude!"
Rising from her position on the ground while rubbing her nose, which was now in pain due to the impact it made when she fell to the ground, Laura-ham, without even turning to look at Chaba, let out something that seemed to be a growl and said, "Introduce yourself, Chaba." And with that, she stormed off, leaving a tiny trail of dust in her wake.
Both Ham and Chaba stared at the tiny hamster marching off, until she disappeared out of sight.
"Uhm…," was all Chaba could say.