Part 14: In which Billy learns there's no place like home

Billy had so thoroughly riddled a back wall with holes that I had to cut a large piece of cardboard to cover the whole section, running from the top to bottom of the wall. I taped along both sides and the bottom to hold it in place.

The next morning Billy was AWOL again, but I couldn't find any new holes in the wall. I called out, "Yummies, Billy, yummy-yums..." and checked his huts, his cave, his three wheels, his two twig nests--all empty. Only then did I hear faint rustles near the end of the run, which I finally tracked down to the latest cardboard patch...or rather, BEHIND the patch. Billy had apparently pulled himself up to the top of the wall but then, instead of scrambling over, had slipped down into the narrow space between the patch and the old wall. He must have been stuck there for hours.

I ripped away the patch, and Billy staggered out. He was flat, like a cartoon character run over by a steam roller. One eye had disappeared, and all four feet seemed to be in the same plane.

I reached for him to see how badly he'd been injured and got a vindictive snap in return. Silly me. I'd imagined he would gratefully regard me as his liberator. Instead, he made it plain that in his eyes I'd set a diabolical hamster trap especially for him and taken my own sweet time letting him out.

Billy wobbled directly to the food box and vacuumed up breakfast. Only when he was finished did he begin grooming himself back into three dimensions. He licked his paws and fluffed up his fur. A few passes over his head, and his missing eye popped back up. Then, his normal shape restored, he shot me a brief crabby look, turned his back, and withdrew into his hut. After that incident, the jailbreaks ceased. He had seen enough of the world.