Wednesday, March 31, 2010
The Hamsters Meet A Paper Visitor
By Catya
Catya is a judge with the California Hamster Association. She shares her experiences in hamster ownership from a high school student's perspective.
Click image to enlarge
Tut, a Roborovski hamster, hangs out with “Flat Hudson,” part of Catya’s cousin’s school project. |
Photos Courtesy of Catya
“Flat Stanley” has traveled all over the world for years as part of children's school projects. |
Hi everybody! This week, the hamsters and I have a special visitor. He came to us from out-of-state through a long and fascinating journey. You may have heard of “Flat Stanley,” a character from a book who finds that he can travel all over the world by mailing himself in envelopes, thanks to his flat shape. Well, some schools like to participate in the Flat Stanley project, having children take turns taking care of Flat Stanley, writing down and taking pictures of where they took Stanley and all the adventures they went on — and then mailing Stanley to another place to make new friends and go on new adventures. Eventually, Stanley gets mailed back to them, and they get to see all of the places that he went.
Well, my cousin Hudson’s school is doing a variant of the Flat Stanley project, using the same idea, but each student draws a “flat” version of himself or herself and sends it out into the world, with specific goals in mind. For example, some of the children are hoping to collect adventures involving water, or maybe they hope that their “flat” versions meet famous people. My cousin’s “flat self” hopes to meet animals! And so, the hamsters and I have the honor of entertaining our flat guest.
Flat Hudson’s journey to meet us started in his home state, where he was scanned and e-mailed to my great-aunt, who lives in another state. My mom was visiting my great-aunt when Flat Hudson arrived there, and had the bright idea to copy him onto a portable USB drive to take him home to see the hamsters. So he came all the way to California to meet us, where he was printed out and introduced to several fuzzy friends.
Interestingly, the Roborovski hamsters were much more interested in Flat Hudson than were Douglas, a Syrian hamster, or the Winter White hamsters. Deanna Troi sniffed at his ears, and Kras sat on his paper shoulder and groomed himself. But Douglas simply ran past him, not even holding still long enough to get a photo! Cinderella was mildly interested, but went back to snacking quickly. Tut the Roborovski seemed to especially like Flat Hudson, hiding under him, scurrying around on top of him, and generally enjoying his presence.
The Pet Expo is coming again soon, and I can’t wait to take Flat Hudson to see all the different kinds of animals that will be there! Along with all the hamsters that will visit the California Hamster Association’s booth for their hamster show, there’ll be chinchillas, rabbits, rats, mice, snakes, cats, dogs of every breed and type, and basically every kind of pet that there is! I’ll be sure to share pictures of all of Flat Hudson’s animal-related adventures with you, and with Hudson’s school!
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The Hamsters Meet A Paper Visitor
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