This isn't going to be a large page because so far I only have one pet. His name is Max. He is a purebred Miniature Schnauzer. His birthday is Aug. 26 1996. Although he seems quite stupid we love him dearly. He helps us get our exercise by taking him for walks and chasing after him when he runs away. He is very yappy and silly. He barks at anything that moves, especially rabbits and squirrels. They're too fast for him and always escape him.

    Next year when I move in with my three friends we will have Maggie the hamster. She is nocturnal and has a funny habit of climbing on top of her exercise wheel and staring at people who are sleeping.

One time I woke up in the middle of the night. I heard this odd high pitched sound and couldn't figure out what it was. I followed the sound to the source and it turned out that it was Max howling. He had been howling in his sleep! I have never heard it before nor have I heard him howl since.

Just recently, we had a very bad thunderstorm. Max followed me around and simply wouldn't settle down. I tried to get him to sleep in a few different places before deciding he wouldn't settle down anywhere but in my room. I placed his mat at the foot of my bed, but he would come and put his two front paws on my bed until I finally let him up. Then he would settle in the oddest places. He would curl up against my chest or by my head but he finally settled down and fell asleep.

    This happened soon after we had gotten Max. One day we were cleaning and we had to sign a card. While we were doing this, we heard a loud crying sound from Max. He had sniffed the vacuum cleaner and the vacuum cleaner had sucked his nose in. Now he runs and hides whenever he hears the vacuum running.

I remember one of the first times that Max ever heard fireworks. We were up at our cottage in Hanover and we knew he didn't like the fireworks so we left him inside. When we went in we had trouble finding him and finally found him underneath the covers at the foot of one of the beds. The fireworks had still scared him enough that he had to take cover. Poor Max!

I wasn't here when this happened. Sonia and I had just left for Christmas shopping this year (2003). Paranoid as we are, we decided to take some blankets just in case we got caught in a snow storm. However, just as we were leaving my mother came outside waving the blankets we had forgotten. She had set her coffee on the floor and unbeknownst to most of us, Max then proceeded to drink some of the coffee. He then apparently spent most of his day lying down in bed and twitching. Silly puppy! Funny Hamster Stories

Soon after we moved in, our hamster escaped. Since noone could find her, we thought that she would be fine and turn up eventually. When I came back the following Sunday, she was in a bucket by the front door. The funny thing about this is that last year one of my roommates went into the bathroom in their old apartment and Maggie was in a bucket. Apparently buckets are a good place for her to be.

After she had escaped a couple of times from her old cage, we twist-tied the top shut. We jokingly said that she would lift her cage to get out. The next morning when I woke up I went to check on Maggie. Her cage had been lifted up about one inch and moved over about two. We are now convinced that Maggie can understand us and we never speak of escaping around her again.

She also managed to open her new cage and escape the first night she was in it. The night after, my roommates watched her open her cage in 45 seconds flat. Her nickname is now Houdini because she can open every cage she has been in. All the above stories are copyrighted ©