Hamster, home, and water leaks

A couple of people have asked me how Rocket is doing and he’s doing great. I took this video of him the other day rolling in his sand bath. This is just his travel sand bath as we had to take him in a smaller cage for our holiday so I used the smaller sand bath as there wasn’t room for the big one.

We got back home to Aberdeen today and he seemed pleased to be back in his old, larger home. I’m glad we didn’t put him down last week. He’s old and may not have long left as dwarf hamsters don’t live for very long but I’d rather he die peacefully in his home rather than by injection. Plus as long as he’s enjoying his wheel, his food, and his sand bath then that says to me it’s not his time yet.

The cat didn’t seem to care much about being home. She wasn’t unhappy about it although I think she was happy to get out of the car which she doesn’t like very much. She does appear to enjoy going on holiday and being in a different environment.

We had some drama in our holiday house on Thursday. Late in the afternoon Daniel and I heard what sounded like gushing water coming from the laundry. We went to investigate and upon opening the cupboard with the hot water cylinder discovered water gushing out of it in several directions. We tried to collect the water in buckets but this was difficult because it was spraying everywhere. We had no idea how to turn the water off – we sometimes forget how to do that in our own home let alone someone else’s and we’re not exactly DIY people. I tried to ring the owner but had no cell reception in the house so Ben raced down the road to their house while I managed the buckets. Unfortunately the owners were out so we swapped places – Ben managed the buckets and I went out to find some cell phone reception.

I eventually got through to them and they were on the west coast of Scotland and weren’t sure how to turn the water off either. There were two taps in the cupboard and we turned both off but it didn’t stem the flow. However we realised later this was because the water in the cylinder was still emptying and when it eventually finished the gushing stopped. Meanwhile the owners managed to get hold of a plumber who came the next morning to sort it out. It turned out to be a damaged expansion tank in the hot water cylinder. It literally had a huge gash in it.

Aside from wet pajamas, slippers, and a wet laundry floor there was no damage that couldn’t be rectified with a dram of Fettercairn whisky which we enjoyed once it was all over.