"It Was a Dark and Stormy Night" part 2Puff grew quickly to her adult size of 6 inches long, with long blonde 'skirts' on her sides and hind legs. She had the most intelligent shiny black eyes, and the dearest little pink hands. She was very obliging to the children, and nothing seemed to faze her. She was a wonderful addition to our classroom, waddling around the floor during circle time, visiting this student and that one as we worked through the calendar, stories and show-and-tell. She was handled, dropped and mauled without ever a nibble or an attempt to run away. The Plan was that Puff would go home with a different student each weekend. In order to take her, students had to take home and bring back a form letter spelling out permission, disclaimers and instructions. Piece of cake. Righty-o.The very first request was from a doozy of a family. The mother would show up in her XXXL tank top, pajama bottoms and bare feet. This was long before this uniform became part of America's 'Dress Down All the Damn Time Day.' She was loud and brash and had a big heart and a big ole messy trailer house and a trucker husband who came and went from their lives. Of course they wanted Puff at their earliest opportunity. With a heavy heart I handed over my precious innocent little buddy, in her new metal traveling cage. Monday morning dawned rainy and cold. Here came the McNasties, hauling a damp Puff back to school in a diagonally slanting cage with a dangling handle. "It just broke!" was the explanation. Heavy sigh. I put Puff into a white plastic storage container while I cleaned and straightened and cussed the formerly decent cage. When all was back in order, I scooped Puff from the tub to put her in her home. What's this? Tiny black and tan dots were falling from her fur, bouncing onto the white plastic, and scrambling around the bottom curves of the tub. YEEESSSHHHH. Nits!? Or fleas?? Yes, I know, head lice don't inhabit animals' fur. Only human fur. That doesn't keep them from catching a ride when they can. I didn't wait to find out what the hitchhikers were. I washed them down the sink, gave Puff a bath with the janitor's yellow soap, bleached the really compromised cage and determined that Puff wouldn't be going home with anyone else. Time to buy another cage, and to put an end to Take A Hamster Home.