Squiggly Wriggly Things

 

A friend of mine has just got a hamster for her daughter for her birthday. She’ll have a great time with it I am sure.  Growing up, we had a series of hamsters of different shapes and sizes staying with us from time to time. Mum was a primary teacher and her classes always had a pet hamster throughout the term but during the holidays they always ended up at our house. They were always in a cage with a wheel for exercise and toilet paper for a bed. Of course they would manage to escape when the cage was being cleaned or one of us kids opened it and wanted to hold the hamster. They got everywhere. Wriggly and slippery creatures, you could hold them for a while, but invariably they would escape round the back of your neck, down your back and away into the interior of the house. They were fast and you could lose them for days on end. They would often be found in various states of disrepair stuck behind heaters, behind fridges, in the back of cupboards, in completely different parts of the house (they can flatten themselves and get under very thin openings). They caused great anguish when they would disappear and a hunt would ensue for them. They sometimes turned up looking rather different (mum having gone and got another one to avoid upsetting us). A foray into larger pets was not very successful. We had a brown poodle puppy called Sandy one school summer holiday. Unfortunately when we all went back to school, the dog destroyed the kitchen, doors and walls included, and had to go. It went to a nice family where the mum didn’t work.

In Sri Lanka I’ve never seen a hamster though they may very well be here. Small squirrels on the other hand are here in abundance. Mum calls them squiggly wriggly things –“Look! There’s a wee squiggly wriggly thing…….oh and another squiggly wriggly thing!” They are palm squirrels (Iri Lena in Sinhala and Sinna Anil in Tamil) and have three very distinct stripes on their back. Their bushy tail, as big as their head and body, goes into a S shape when they sit and eat something held in their paws. They nest in the eaves of the house and can be seen dragging soft bark and dried grass and leaves along and up the roof often leaving a trail of debris in their wake.

They rule the garden. They race across the top of the gate which must be piping hot in the sun; they balance precariously across the telephone wire which connects my house to the one next door; they run up and down the tree to get to the bird table before the birds; they run along the inside of the branches of the ‘fir’ tree which must be tickly; they run around the roof beams; they chase each other round the garden (the dogs have learnt they haven’t a hope in hell of catching them); they are everywhere. I even found one down the back of my desk – I thought it was a rat at first and freaked out. It was a baby and must have climbed in the window and got kind of lost. Its mother eventually tracked it down and went off with it in tow.  Mum can sit for hours on the porch watching the squirrels racing around the garden. The squirrels cause hours of amusement.

The Fortress as well is crawling in them. Mum sits with her feet up on the sun lounger in the shade of the umbrella – the only person round the pool fully clothed – watching them intently. The squirrels' antics are accompanied by her running commentary. They race around the grounds chasing each other. Up and down the palm trees. Alongside the pool. In and out dining room tables. Leave food or drink around on a table and they’re up like a shot to investigate. They’ll also climb on your lounger (and you if you let them) if you have a plate on your lap. They can be a bit of a nuisance. And they make a racket. For the size of them they can certainly make their presence heard. 

They may not be hamsters and mum certainly doesn’t look after them in any way – except by surreptitiously dropping some of her lunch at the Fortress which has the desired result of bringing them nearer. But they cause the same constant distraction and amusement in their never ending and unpredictable antics as the primary class hamsters once did.  Thankfully there are no fridges and heaters to get stuck behind here!