have you ever lost a pet?

[bubblewrap]

Lost hamster it escaped from it's exercise ball.
It turned up a week later in the bath.
It had climbed up(and nibbled) a shirt that was on a radiator next to the bath then fell in.

[selfraising]

When my daughters were much younger, their hamster went missing down a hole in the floorboards in the bathroom. We thought we wouldn't see him again but my daughter in desperation got a little ladder belonging to one of her toys and put it in the hole with some food near the top of the ladder. A few days later the hamster climbed out and was quickly caught and put back in the cage.

Also my best friends cat nearly gave OH a heart attack. He was in bed asleep and somehow her cat had got into our house unnoticed and got into bed with him. He felt something moving next to him, woke up, I heard a loud yell and the cat came charging down the stairs!!

[vicky]

We lost a snake too...found it again just over a year later(!) camping in a neighbour's garden...

[Caro]

When I was a teenager, I looked after a friend's hamster while he went on holiday. I thought I'd give him (the hamster) some exercise, checked every inch of my room's skirting boards etc for holes, let him out the cage, carefully shut the door behind me and left him to it for a bit. When I came back, no sign of hamster. I searched everywhere, there were no gaps, no holes, it was a mystery.

Several years later we found out what happened. A blocked downpipe was cleared, and there was a wee hamster skeleton . The hamster had managed to climb up the wall behind the radiator, onto the window ledge, out the open window, down the tiles, along the guttering and had then started down the downpipe

[jackie j]

We used to have gerbils and I couldnt understand why my son was staring at the sofa, I was feeding the baby, I had to put the baby down to see what he was looking at. One of the gerbils had escaped from a glass tank that had a gap at the top, it had somehow jumped out. Trying to catch it was a nightmare, it got underneath the telly cabinet, the telly had to come off as did the video player. I asked my freinds OH to come and help he refused so she came over and stood on the table holding the baby while I caught it.
How long it had been loose is anybody's guess.

[Glutton4...]

Lost a white pony in a field once - in freezing fog!

[its hilly]

Was given an old, arthritic ex working sheepdog. Day she arrived took her and my other working sheepdog to a farm about half a mile from my place for some reason. Tied her up, told him to stay. Came back out after 10 mins, she'd gone, just her collar sat on the ground. And him looking worried.
Called, looked round, no sign. Set off home with visions of poor old girl trying to walk back to her old home, many miles and a seriously busy by-pass to go along. Suffering from panic and guilt. How could I tell her ex owner that I'd lost her within an hour of her arriving? No car so couldn't go and find her. Came round corner of my cottage to find her sat on the kitchen doorstep, quite content, with a sort of 'well I've been waiting ages for you to get back and let me in' expression.
And that was it, from that minute on she was allowed to wander round free, and the furthest she went from the door (apart from on walks) was across the road and down the bank to lie in the stream when it was hot.