Funny near death

A neighbor across the street who's been recovering from a brain aneurism for the past year was happily messing with a plastic hamster ball; she asked me if I minded small rodents, and handed over the young pet of her five year old son. He has named this little furball Ham and Cheese, and H&C has already used up a life, if hamsters could be thought to have a few at their disposal. He disappeared several days ago from his hamster condo, and usually in that event, a hamster will be found, flattened, under a sofa pillow. One of my brother-in-laws can attest to this, having witnessed about every sort of demise possible for his string of childhood hamsters. H&C, however, somehow evaded capture, and one night the young owner heard strange sounds coming from the furnace; his dad opened a panel, and there was Ham and Cheese. Luckily it wasn't midwinter, so the furnace wasn't firing up.
Lots of running around today even for the nonegenarian, and we are happy when cocktail hour is upon us.