He's Found

We found Ron, the hamster, last night at about 2 am. Actually, he found us. We had looked all over the house for him, under anything we thought he could climb under and in all the closets. We even looked for "droppings" to see where he had been. The only place we could see any evidence that he had been there was behind the piano. We even looked in the piano, but we figured he couldn't get in there. I figured he could probably live for a while on the treats that the kids leave on the kitchen and pantry floors, but I didn't think he'd have any sources for water. I didn't think the doors had been left open long enough to allow him to escape out that way, and I didn't think he was big enough to climb the stairs (he is a dwarf hamster). Two nights ago, we left a dish of his food with cheese in it on the kitchen floor to see if he was even in the house. The next morning, we found a bite out of the cheese and some of the seeds gone. Last night, his cage out with the lid open enough for him to crawl in...with his food inside. In the middle of the night, I noticed that Joe was up. When he came back I asked what was up. He said that he found Ron. Apparently, the hamster was thirsty, so he climbed into his cage and got a drink. The ball in the bottom of the water bottle was loud enough to wake Joe up, so he went and locked down the cage. When he came back, he paused for a minute and said..."I'm trying to decide if I should just let him outside right now!"
At this point, the fact that the hamster could live undetected for 5 days is very disturbing to me. We never did find a nest where he had been living. I'm sure someday we will move a piece of furniture, or get into that box we never use and find his nest he had been using. Hopefully by then, Ron will have moved on to greener pastures.