Clicky thinks she's a dog.
It's my fault. Cricket (that's "Clicky" to her exasperated parents) was so wary and fast at first. But then she realized that hands are really nice. They bring food, for one thing. So, soon she was jumping in and out of the hand, like "Hey! Hands! Wait, I'm in the hand - LEAP! - safe again, wait, hey! Hands!"
But one time, while she was processing this (on a runaway GOTO statement), my hair was hanging over the edge of the hamitat. And she saw the hair. And she leapt (LEAP!) for the hair, like it was the last callback for a Tarzan audition. Thus we had a game: me dunking the hair up, down, and around, and Cricket chasing and hopping after it.
And I wonder why I have split ends.
Now she wants to play the game all of the time, and if it weren't for the long-suffering Susan, who often serves as oil barrel to Cricket's Evil Knieval impersonations, I might see if we could get a miniature Frisbee game going with a bottlecap.
Unfortunately, Cricket doesn't quite understand that the hand is not the same as the hair. (Which, knowing my catch-all frizz, probably also brought some food with it.) She has started grabbing the hand, not biting, and trying to pull it. But when you don't pull back, she's disappointed. Like, you didn't just not play with her; you took out the toys, asked if she'd care for a round, then wankerishly said, "Oh, I'm just taking a survey." And walked away. Why do you have to be such a LEAP!-hater?
All of this confuses Cricket. Maybe she's not making her point clear? Maybe she needs to grab your hand with more emphasis?
Which means there is now some biting. Or, if you're Mike, a lot of biting.
I tell him that you have to take your hand away then offer it again, then take it away every time she uses her teeth. After a few tries she cottons on that the hand goes away if she bites, and instead she'll just get in the hand and sit there hopefully. Oh yes, she loves The Game, but she loves The Hand more.
But this isn't working well for him, and I don't know why. Maybe it's because I'm a firm, clear disciplinarian?
Hahahaha.
Yeah, here's the real deal. I keep getting sucked into playing The Game with The Hand, because it's incredibly cute and doesn't hurt when played properly. (Meaning, when I give in to her demands right away.) This means she's not learning to keep those little rodent fangs inside her mouth after all.
That's really bad, as she's a young hammie and now's not the time to learn bad social skills. (We've only just gotten her deprogrammed from her last two families.) The teacher part of me is shaking her head at all this lazy spoiling, loudly guaranteeing that Cricket's going to be sent home for seed-shucking in the back of the class and who knows what else, you wait and see.
I'll try to be better. I promise. Perhaps I could be bothered to keep a bit of string nearby and offer that instead.
I should also stop telling Mike that Cricket doesn't like him.
And I should probably never tell any "real people" that I let rodents swing from my hair.
(They could carry little torches! It's the new Blackbeard! LEAP!)
Comments