A New Home for Shivers

Howard W. Gabriel III

Illustrated by David House

On one dreary, rainy, windy day two children struggled down a driveway, carrying a large hamster cage.

"Be careful where you are stepping!" yelled the girl to the boy.

"Keep the cage covered!" the boy snapped to his sister.

Despite their quarrel, the did manage to stuff the cage into the back seat of the family car.

Yet, as they returned to the house, a charming little creature was dwarfed among the yard's high, green grass.

"What has happened to me?" pondered Shivers, the family's pet hamster.

How could he know that the children's uneven movements had jarred a lid off his cage? He had tumbled out into the cold wet grass, and immediately awoke from his usually peaceful daytime sleep.

Now Shivers began running, in panic, but in the wrong direction! Rather than going towards the family's house he reached the sidewalk. As he paused to examine this strange new space, his keen sense of smell told him someone new was nearby--someone he did not know.

Quickly, to avoid being squashed by a bicycling newspaper girl, the hamster leaped off the sidewalk curb and fell to the unknown below.

"Eeeeeeee!" squealed Shivers. "I am falling into rushing gutter water and I can not swim."

Closing his eyes to prepare for hitting the water, he suddenly hit something solid and everything began to spin.

Annoyed by having something land on his back, Horace poked his head out of his shell for a good look.

As Shivers began to slide off, he grabbed Horace's long neck. The two of them struggled with each other in the water, all the while floating rapidly down the gutter in the swift current.

All of a sudden the water went straight down the drainage hole while the struggling, bewildered pair shot right past the hole. Horace landed upside down on his back, and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't seem to get back on his feet.

"I will help you," Shivers told him and he promptly wedged his flexible body between the turtle and the curb.

That did it!

The turtle flopped over and landed back on his feet.

Putting on his large rimmed glasses, Horace said sternly, "I do thank you, but I would not have needed any help at all if you had not jumped on my back and scared me so much! Furthermore, a stormy, rainy day is no time for a hamster to be outside. You should go home!"

"But I am lost and do not know how to return home," sobbed Shivers.

"Then I, Horace Turtle, shall find your house for you," replied the turtle.

However, when they reached the house that Shivers recognized as home they found it empty.

"Your family has moved and left without you," Horace told poor Shivers, and he added "You must now find another home on your own!"

Having no more time for this small fry, Horace left to play in his favorite sandbox, and Shivers, who had nowhere else to go, followed Horace from a distance, crying all the way.

As he climbed into the sandbox, Horace knocked a large sandpail over, and it landed right on top of him, trapping him inside.

"Ugh!" grunted Horace. "I am really in trouble this time."

Thinking Horace had gone into the pail on purpose to seek shelter from the rain, Shivers climbed on top of the pail. Determined more than ever to be with the only friend he now had in the world, he chewed and chewed until he finally made a hole big enough for him to squeeze inside.

"How did you get in here?" wondered Horace out loud.

Before Shivers could reply, Horace spotted the tiny hole and asked, "Can you make it big enough for me?"

After Shivers had chewed for a long time the hole was big enough for the much larger Horace to crawl through. He was free again. This time the turtle was very grateful.

Proudly he announced to Shivers, "It was not your fault that I was stuck in that pail, but you helped me none the less. You are indeed a good friend. I shall take you to live at my house!"

When they finally reached Horace's house, the sun was coming out once more and Shivers spotted two familiar figures. The two children playing at the house next door to Horace's were his children! They ones he had lost way back at the car!

His family had moved next door to Horace's house!

I really am home after all!" said the happy Shivers.