G's early birthday present!

so, G wanted her very own pet, other than her fish, for her birthday. we did some research and after entertaining thoughts of a ferret(no), a dog(no, not right now), a guinea pig(no), a rat (uh, no, never ever ever) we decided a hamster MIGHT be a wonderful and easy animal for her to take care of. we have allergy issues and lack a back yard, so a hamster sounded great. and then we caved and got it for her early because she had already picked out "pumpkin" and didnt see the point in letting her sit over there at petco, when she could be keeping our daughter awake right in our very own house. hamsters are nocturnal, by the way, and now G wants to stay up and watch pumpkin in the wheel which by the way sounds the the garbage truck coming to our house and driving in reverse and driving forward and on and on again seemingly ad infinitum. this little tidbit we did not know.
we spent an hour picking out cages, opted for the one she "really wanted" because it had the pop out carrying case for all those times we would need to tote pumpkin all around town with us. this cage happened to be the most expensive one, about 5 times the cost of said hamster. we start to put the cage together in the van in the parking lot. of course it broke, it being made of that rigid plastic that breaks if you sneeze while holding it. so, i took the neon monstrosity (monstrosity in a cute way of course)and waited in a long line of people requesting flea control products that for some strange reason are kept in a vault in the back of the store. i went back to the aisle where the dad of the family, in his infinite wisdom, of which he constantly reminds me, suggested the "starter kit". it's not as flashy, much cheaper. and has everything you need, or so it seems....i found myself examing the attaching clippy thing at the back of the wheel of the floor model. this would be fortuitous!
at the register i filled out all the paperwork, blah, blah, and got $15 back. and said"i really hope i don't have to return anything else." and i really did hope that. again, fortuitous.
got back in the van, yes, it was all put together and little clippy thing was, MISSING! god, i didnt want to go back there. but i did. i explained it all, after waiting for more closely guarded flea control products to be distributed, walked to the aisle, the hamster aisle. and got a replacement! she almost paid me $5 more to never come back.

so pumpkin is home and i will post the pictures later tonight, when the garbage and/or recycling truck comes. we love her. hamsters are really cute