It’s 3:00 PM on Wednesday afternoon, and my cell phone rings as if right on cue. It’s usually about this time of the week that I get a call from my friend Helen at the RAPS operated Richmond Animal Shelter. Helen often calls me to let me know when extraordinary animals that come into the shelter whose stories really should be told.
“I have a dog with an identity crisis,” Helen said.
“Oh really. How’s that?” I ask.
“Well, he was surrendered to us in a rodent cage fully equipped with a hamster water bottle and everything,” said Helen. Sure enough, a women had surrendered her dog earlier that week, with its puppy collar imbedded in his neck because she didn’t know he would grow bigger. The women’s friend had purchased the dog at a local pet store and had given him away – hamster cage and all.
The dog, named Cheesie, was adopted within a day, as a dog, not a hamster.
Cheesie in his former (abusive) home living as a hamster.
Christie Lagally 
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