Run, Forrest, Run

A classic movie line, right?  Except my kids have no idea what it's from and look at me like I'm crazy every time I mention it.  I mention it a lot lately too because of our dwarf hamster, Oreo, who has to be from Kenya.

That little booger sleeps all day long.  You don't see or hear a peep out of him unless you go get him out of his cave, but you can bet about 10:30 p.m. when we're all settled in for bed, he will hop up on his wheel and go to town...actually he must get farther than town.  I bet he runs as far as Chicago!  I always think surely he'll get tired...and yet it continues for hours.

Every time I pass his little cage and he happens to be on the wheel, I yell, "Run, Forrest, Run."  And that's when I get the look from the youngin's.  I told Jay a while back that Oreo has to be from Kenya because isn't that where all the really fast runners are from?  Maybe we should have named him Forrest or Kenya.

I had been taking the wheel off at night so he couldn't run, but Jay (Yes, Jay) thought that was cruel because he waits all day to run and exercise and now what does he have to live for if the wheel is 'broke'?  We sure don't want to send him into a depressive state.  I say maybe he just needs to realize that he needs a different schedule.  As I write this, I'm wondering if we covered his cage in the daytime, would he run to Chicago then instead of at midnight...hmm.

The solution we have come up with is that he has to go into a room no one is sleeping in or near at nighttime.  The problem for me is remembering to do this before he starts running and I'm already snug as a bug in a rug in bed.

He's still a cute little dude and pretty simple to care for.  One thing is for sure, he is fit as a fiddle (whatever that means;).