How far would you go to save the pet hamster you just bought fifteen minutes ago? If you are 33 year-old student Fran Elkington, you would hire mechanics to take your Volkswagen Beetle completely apart to free the critter.
It seems she had just picked up Willow the hamster, and the little one got away from her during the 15-minute drive from the pet store to her house. Fran knew Willow was still in the car, and when she couldn’t find her she left food and water in there, hoping she’d emerge again. Willow kept eating the food, and Fran kept avoiding driving the car so as not to spook or hurt her. She tried using more food and a humane trap, but nothing was working. Willow was beginning to nibble on the seats themselves, so it was time for drastic action.
That’s when Fran enlisted the aid of some auto mechanics, who removed the car’s seats, doors, and back panels. They found Willow nestled in a gap near the car’s trunk. Since this all happened in England, they called it a “boot.” Willow is now safe and sound.
The bill for the dismantling and reassembly of the Beetle came out to $4,700, according to the Huffington Post. The Sun reports the fee as £300, so either someone reported something wrong or the exchange rate has really gotten out of control. Anyway, the mechanic shop waived the fee, presumably because everyone was too busy jumping for joy and hugging to worry about collecting payment.
Remember that owning a pet is a big, big responsibility. Fran Elkington gets it.
Photo credit: ‘hamster’ by Yukari*, on Flickr.
Love that the fee was waived. Love that she would probably have paid it anyway.
Agreed 🙂
Hi there, I’m Fran Elkington. Thanks for writing such a lovely post. 🙂 I received a lot of flak for the story over here in the UK (initially it was only published in the local rag, but then to my horror went national and even ended up on TV!), and a lot of people made very negative comments about how stupid I was to have ‘let’ it happen in the first place and that I was even stupider to have bothered having the car dismantled ‘just for a silly hamster’. Well, to me, a life is a life. Willow never asked to be stuffed into a cardboard box and carried off by a stranger, and if that happened to me, I’d do my best to chew my way out and escape as well! As soon as she entered my care she became my responsibility, so I had to do what was right by her, regardless of the inconvenience and expense. (And crippling embarrassment.) And yes, I would have paid the fee anyway, which would have made her the most expensive hamster in the universe. 😉 Thanks again for your post. It’s nice to be reassured that not everyone views animals as transient, disposable objects of entertainment. Willow’s alive and well and chewing one of my textbooks as I type this. I better go deal with that. Take care! ~F.