I think my head will explode.
Last night was a horror. We put Koko outside of her cage as usually, everything surrounded by little colorful fences to protect her, but she was so curious about what was going on outside, that nothing could catch her attention.
No food, no towers of towels and books to crawl upon. Not even rucola.

So after a while we decided to put her onto our bed.
Koko was excited! How grand the world can be! But the fast little gnome made her way across our barriers and all of a sudden was under the bed. But there was no need for panic, as Koko is not scared at all and did not use the bed as her hiding place.
Luckily she is also not interested in gnawing on wires or anything. After a while I caught her and put her back into her cage, but that little incident seemed to make things even worse. She behaved a little berserk, gnawing on the bars all the time.
All through the night, it was no stoping her. I used a little spray bottle filled with water to keep her from any further harm (it can´t be good if she hurts her nose and teeth all the time), but no way.
Next try was to lube the bars with ordinary mustard. Still nothing.
At about 7 A.M. I came to the point where I used chili paste. Finally peace. Koko did not even try another attempt, she must have smelled that this substance has to be really HOT!

So she shuffled off, making her bed and letting me have my well-deserved sleep.
Oh please don´t do this again…

Aaaah, what are the tweemees without their obsession for cute animals?
Yes, we´ve been thinking about having a dog. Yes, we´ve been thinking about having a cat.
The first one needs a lot of time and more space and our little flat might really be to small (even for tiny dogs).
The later soaks the rooms with allergens to which my boyfriend probably could react.
And we don´t want to get a cat and then have to give it away again. That would brake my heart, meow!
We still wait for the serum that Reto Cameri will bring out. Only three injections instead of seventy.
That shall be better, but it is still in the test phase, so we gotta wait a little longer.

Anyway, we have a hamster. A teddyhamster to be more precise and her name is Mrs. Koko Ro.
After consulting my friends at the art chat of Jared Knight, we were confronted with about 20 somewhat names,
all referring either to her name or to her temper, which brought us to the idea to choose
a japanese name for her that fits her personality.
The name means “heart, spirit” and quite suitable.
It all together was too long, so we went for Koko as her first name and Ro for her surname.

She is not shy at all. Of course she is not hand tame, but she is not afraid of the hand either and does not bother to be touched.
When we got her she was living in a small terrarium with a house and a wheel, but not much space to run around.
We brought her home, my scarf wrapped around her little transport-box (for it was very cold outside that evening) and put her into her large cage.
She was kind of shocked.
Not by the fact only, that everything was so huge and vast, but also, that she actually somehow was outside and free.
If there weren´t these stupid bars. There had to be a way to get past them.

So the first night she spent her time checking for any gaps. She climbed anywhere (why did we even get those wooden bridges?), even upside-down and giving us a hard time thinking that she might hurt herself somehow.
But she eventually gave up the fight, as for the second night she did not mind the bars anymore.
We got her a wooden wheel too, for the cage is next to the bed and we thought it might actually be quite nice to sleep without listening to “eeek eeek eeek”-sounds all night long. It totally payed off.

Today we bought some small fences that you can stick together. It looks like a small circus arena, very colorful and spacious.
With another wooden bridge she could climb outside and back inside either way she wanted to, but of couse as soon as she was outside, there was no going back. She had a mission: new bars! All of them had to be checked. Again *sigh*.
The fact that we were sitting in the middle of the arena did not make her nervous at all.
Actually, she found out that if she climbed high enough on my shoulder, she might jump over the fence.
Clever lady, but no way.

She also is crazy for arugula and cocos. (with a name like Koko, what else?) We got more fresh vegetables and fruits for her, then we would ever do for ourselves.
We hope to tame her very soon. Little furrrrrball.