Near Miss!

Yesterday was the day to clean out Sesame's cage. I placed her in a small white bin while I cleaned. She's played in this bin before and never was able to or even tried to escape. Just to be careful, I placed the bin up on top of my heater (it wasn't on). I went to the bathroom and was washing out her cage with hot hot water. I came back into my room just in time to see Sesame climb over the top of the bin and start creeping across the ridge of the heater. Now, I know Sesame is clumsy and I've seen her fall many times before just inside her cage and I knew that she if she slipped, as she is prone to do, she would fall all the way to the floor. I dropped her cage, screamed "Sesame, no!", and ran across the room.

Now, I've picked Sesame up several times before but have always been very careful and gentle about it. However, in my fright, I forgot and didn't have time to be as ginger as I usually am and SNATCHED Sesame up as quick as I could. I probably bruised her poor ribs when I grabbed her that hard. Not to mention the fact that my hands were still soaking wet from washing the cage and the water was probably a shock too. She immediatly began making sounds that I had no idea she could make. I didn't even know she could make a sound beside gnawing loudly on a piece of corn. It sounded like she was yelping, "Eeeeeehhhhhh, Oooohhhhh, Ahhhhhhh, Ish, Ish, eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" I tossed her back into the bin. She was so traumatized by my brute force that she ran into her cardboard roll and hid. I was extra nice to her afterwards, gave her a yogurt treat and let her run around in her ball for a long time. I'm sure it's gone from her memory by now, but whew....., what a scare.