The bright light shone into her newborn eyes. The small hamster peeked through her little fuzzy eyelids, struggling to get on all fours. She finally got a hold of the pet store wheel, sitting up and looking at all of the other hamsters being handled and taken away.

All of the sudden movement was making the little hamsters eyes. A small girl was standing at the front counter, talking to the owner, or her father. She was pointing to the hamster area. The owner was looking down at the desperate child while the hamster in back, waited.

Days passed. Somtimes this hamster was the only one left. Nobody wanted this hamster, because she was always sleeping. Quite frankly, she awoke to movements of the cages sitting in the store and awoke sternly. She would never bite; this hamster was friendly and is too cute and would never even touch a HUMAN with her teeth.

One day in December, the girl was standing in front of the cage. The hamster stared back at her in suprise, noticing the owner next to her and taking the cage out of its slot. She was the only hamster there, so quite frankly this girl was going to have a new pet.

The girl reached in and grabbed the hamsters back skin. She tried not to bite. She lifted the small animal into her hands and the owner was putting his own money into the cash register. The owner carried a plastic carrier over to the girl, gently putting the hamster inside and leaving it on the counter.

The small hamster inside the cage was panicing. Maybe she wouldnt be going home. Maybe somwhere in the great beyond. Just because of the fact she had been in the pet store so long. She frantically bit on the plastic, hopefully chewing through and getting away.

The girl was looking at a selection of cages. Big ones, small. She picked up a huge box off of the floor, containing a 3 story cage. The bottom floor had a wheel and an easily sliding door, the second had a resting house (with a roof!), and the top floor with a watering tube. How the Hamster wished she would live in it.

The box suddenly thumped next to the carrier containing the hamster. The carrier bounced, and the carrier was lifted off of the counter and taken into an SUV in the parking lot. The hamster looked out of the see through carrier, seeing the letters imprinted on the store. P-E-T-C-O. She didnt know what it meant.

The car rushed speedily down the highway, the girl peeking through the carrier and tapping the plastic. She said 'Hullo ham-ham; and Im going to keep you'. When she put the cage down, the hamster heaved a sigh.

As soon as the car haulted in the driveway, the girl rushed inside with the hamster and the cage and put them both on the large antiquey-looking table. She opened the cage box eagerly and started taking out the huge pieces. Soon, the Crittertrail 3 was put together and sawdusted.

The girl grabbed the hamster, this time around the waist just the way she liked it. This time the hamster didnt have to stuggle or resist violence. The cage door opened as the hamster quickly got adjusted with his new home here at the Lempke home.

The girl hurriedly went up the stairs with the cage, the hamster rolling around the floor curiously as the cage thumped onto the desktop. The girl once again opened the cage door and grabbed the hamster.

"Hello, Kizzy!" The hamster looked at her happily, now having a new name. The girl let Kizzy crawl all over her shirt, somtimes leaving a few pellets (yesterdays dinner) on her pink shirt.

"My name is Fran." She said, petting Kizzy's head gently while it started to doze on her shirt. She decided to let him sleep in his new cage. After all- It has been a very, very long day for Kizzy.

Kizzy slowly ran around her cage, inspecting her new surroundings. As soon as she found the food dish on the second floor, she raced to it and immediatley started gnawing on a sunflower seed. Fran was watching the hamster explore, writing a few notes about it in her journal. Somtimes even letting it run around on the table and look out of the window.

Fran was a short little girl, about 12. She had orange hair to her shoulders, and a green band on top of her head. She was skinny, and always wore green or purple. Hamsters were EVERYWHERE in her room, posters, bedsets, lamps and even book to book about hamsters. She was a hamster fanatic. It seemed.

She inspected Kizzy running around the hamster home. A big cage was exciting to Kizzy, because she had a ton of space to runn around in tubes and in wheels. There was a wheel on each floor. One was green, and the other two were purple.

When Fran went to bed, Kizzy was up and running in her wheel. The hamster looked at her new owner eagerly, hoping she was going to get up. Kizzy frantically chewed on the bar and ran in her wheel, making loud noises in hopes to wake her owner up.

Soon her hopes were down. The owner didnt awaken. While Kizzy was beginning to fall asleep in about 4:00 am, the room got dark and Kizzy seemed more alone then she ever had been before.

She MISSED the Pet store.



~*Part 2*~

The girl awoke and so did the hamster. To a loud alarm, anyway. Not the most peaceful though. Kizzy was up and running, trying to get the owners attention by running in the wheel. Fran was walking over to her in her hamster pjs, picking up a bag of little hamster treats. They were circular with a hole in the middle, and cream inside.

She slipped it though the bar into Kizzy's dish, who ran up the tubes and into the food dish room in 10 seconds flat. She made way through the dish, digging out the hamster treat. She stared at it and started eating it in glory while Fran walked out the door.

Kizzy was by the door, struggling to get out. It finally popped open and the hamster quickly made its way through the wires and onto the window sill next to her cage. She looked out.

The window is open! Kizzy thought. She was a truley smart hamster. She scanned the ground below and above her head, and finally leading into a gutter hole like at Laura's house. She jumped to it and climbed down the outside very carefully.

Kizzy was a hamster quite like Sandy. But she didnt have stripes, and she was shorter and a bit more tom-boyish. Kizzy trailed off down the yard, galloping into the alley and looking around.

"I recognnize this..." Kizzy said, climbing over the gravel on the ground and trying not to fall on a small rock. If she got caught in between two rocks, she would be in a bit of trouble. How would she get out?

Kizzy was already at the end of the alleyway, now on pavement. The cars rushed by. She didnt know what they were, knowing her she probably thought they were fluffy pillows but oh she was wrong.

She went into the street, and when she reached the yellow line she sat down. Looking at the line, she poised her paw over it and patted it like it was somthing alive. She spotted a Red Chevy Blazer approaching in a fast pace.

"Oh boy!!" She said in an uneasy tone, now swaddling across the road and tripping. The car finally reached her, and sent her flying due to the wind of the rushing car. She was in the air, Arms frantically swinging around as she hit the pavement in pain.

"Ohhh...." She groaned, holding her head. Not such a good idea to run into roads. She put on her notebook in her hand:

1. Big black lakes have big red metal things.

A hamster behind her moaned like Kizzy didnt know anything. Kizzy turned quickly, and jumped back. She said somthign right away- It was more like a blurt.

"Wha- What! Are you from the pet store?" She stood back a little from harm.

"No. Im a hamster that lives around in the streets."

"Heke?" Kizzy said, looking at him like he was a dork.

"Oh. Street. I watched you write. Its cement and its dangerous." He held a paw out.

"Im Leeto." He offered a sunflower seed.

"My rules reqiure to meet in a fashionable manner.