Dad Loses Daughter’s Hamster, And His Freak-Out Texts Reveal How Pure His Heart Really Is
Every once in a while, something comes up that tests us to the very core, revealing our true colors. Daniel Veerman, a 53-year-old lawyer, just went through such an experience. Daniel was so broken when his daughter’s hamster, Chester, escaped while cleaning his cage that he had a complete meltdown in a text exchange they had during the critter’s search and rescue operation.
Luckily, his 19-year-old daughter, Steph, took the news in stride and posted their conversation on Twitter to show how truly pure her father is.
More info: Twitter
Steph said her dad is pretty much the opposite of what you would think seeing him in this situation: he’s conservative, Catholic, a lawyer, and usually strict, but when it comes to animals and babies, he has the biggest soft spot.
“My dad and I are very close and have been since forever!” she told Bored Panda. “My parents are divorced and he was always very involved in everything that I and my brother would do. We have the typical tight-knit father-daughter bond.”
What made the escape so unexpected was the fact that Chester is really chill. “He reminds me almost of a cat because he’s so laid back … Chester has never bit anyone and is very docile. [He] and my dad are best friends (especially because my dad is the person who feeds him since he’s taken over!).”
Even though Steph reassured her father time and time again that it was OK and that she understands it wasn’t his fault, Daniel couldn’t accept the loss and let his hands down. “I had a meltdown,” Daniel told BuzzFeed News. ” “I was having a freaking heart attack.”
The 53-year-old started watching Chester about a month or two ago when Steph went back for her sophomore year at Emmanuel College in Boston.
“At first, I wasn’t too keen on him. I grew up with German Shepherds. I’ve never had, you know, when I first got it, it was like a mouse. It wouldn’t be my first choice of pet. But then I got attached. And even more, because you’re taking care of it for your daughter.”
“It was a nightmare,” Daniel recalled. “I was calling him, screaming his name, thinking maybe he knows his name. I was looking with a high-powered flashlight.”
During these terrifying hours, Daniel kept texting Steph updates, letting her know that he’s doing everything to get Chester back. “I couldn’t just sit there all day, I was going crazy,” he said. “So I set traps. I re-created his cage in my office, took his toys and treats all around. Put out water. I thought if I didn’t find him at least he wouldn’t die because he would have food.”
Eventually, Daniel found Chester “next to a book about President Nixon”
Image credits: stephyj725
“Right after nightfall, I saw him run across the floor and said, ‘Thank god,'” Daniel said. “I came back and saw him standing on a book, cleaning himself, and I grabbed him.”
Image credits: stephyj725
Image credits: stephyj725
Steph reassured that the incident has not changed the way she views her dad. “I always knew he has a big heart and would do anything for me. This situation just proved it more!”
Image credits: stephyj725
People fell in love with Daniel’s sincerity and started sharing stories of when their own pets went missing
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Once lost my hamster. Woke up the next day to my grandma shouting "MOOOOOUSE" and trying to kill it with a broom :D fortunately I was quicker to save it
Oh my just envisioned that xD Poor hamster must have been terrified xD
Load More Replies...Good on dad. This isn't 'just' a hamster! He's a living creature that feels pain and fear - it's absolutely right that dad makes an effort to ensure the little critter is safe. If you have pets, even if you end up with them because your kids leave home, you absolutely have a duty to keep them from harm. Totally behind dad on this.
Scroll back. She clarified in a tweet that Chester is the light of her life and she only said that to calm down her dad who was panicking
Load More Replies...A workman left the door open and my maltipom ran out of the house. I screamed “get back in here” and the workman sheepishly said “yes mam” and came back in the house. Ha! I did get my Howdy back in the house as well.
Hahaha - hilarious!! Glad your little dog was okay though. Maltipoms are adorable. When my dog unexpectedly got out we hadn't had him long, a little rescue, we found shouting 'treats' worked better than calling his name.
Load More Replies...The coolest thing, my mum took on my king snake when i went back to Uni. She started throwing in the (dead) mouse, but by the time i came home she had him around her neck. He like her so much she suggested buying it off me. I gave her the responsibility of looking after him for free.
When our blind cat escapes into the city, I started having dreams of of him with me apologizing for letting him get away. After about 1,000 notes in people's mailboxes we ended up getting a lead and finding him. He had been alone with no eyesight downtown for 6 weeks. More skin and bones then anything else, he had developped a taste for stale bread. No moment felt ever so blessed as when he was found.
one of our hamsters got out a few years back. me and my wife were tearing apart the whole apartment trying to find her. when i was pulling everything out of the utility room to see if she made it behind the washer/dryer, i turned around and saw the little s**t just staring at me from the hallway a couple feet away with a "whatcha doin?" look on her face. love hamsters.
My BFF from elementary school had her hamster escape and was lost for MONTHS before he turned up again one day while she was sitting on the floor reading a book. Apparently he had a wonderful adventure in the baseboards of their house, living off crumbs and trash. He returned to his little cage and lived the rest of his life in pampered luxury, never having to scrounge for kibble again. ( I always thought of the inner life of houses as a parallel universe after that)
Been there, done that :D He hid behind a wardrobe. A rat trap of the cage-type was the solution, loaded with goodies a grumpy hamster was sitting in it the morning after!
One day I thought my Chihuahua had gotten out, when a roommate left the door open. I literally had random strangers from the neighborhood, that had been bike riding, helping me look for Evan. Finally I gave up and came home for a minute to regroup with my roommates and I thought I heard something, so I made everyone be very quiet. It seemed like it was coming from inside a lazy boy chair. Sure enough my dog had been underneath and someone closed the chair and he got stuck inside! Thank God he wasn't hurt and he hadn't run away, but I sure felt silly having to tell all the people helping me look, what had actually happened.
One of my cats does this! Now we're all very careful we can see her before the chair gets closed up again
Load More Replies...So am I the only one wondering why a 19 year old college sophomore can't take care of her own hamster?
Hamsters also don't live that long so are we supposed to believe that she suddenly went to college unexpectedly?
Load More Replies...I had pet mice as a kid. They would occasionally escape. I still remember the time my mom was on the phone with someone and said "I have to go. My daughter's mice just showed up." Not a sentence one commonly hears.
I had hermit crabs when I was a kid and I would announce to everyone I saw and talked to "I HAVE CRABS". Yea.....
Load More Replies...Funny this would be a non story is the parent was the mom. Why do we assume men dont care/cant be loving/ protective? Then we are sticker shocked when he steps up...people act like he's a hero. In reality he is just a dad..this is what dads do. We really need to stop stereotyping men as being emotionist beings
My pet rat escaped on the morning of my first ever university exam. I was panicking, and ready to miss the exam. Heard rat noises in the lounge so went in there and shut the door. Ffwd: so glad I waited (I did make it to the exam), as it was a cold day, my flatmates were about to get up, and I found her inside the gas heater!! It took a piece of banana with honey in it to convince her to come out. And then I had to padlock her cage doors when I was out (turns out she'd learned how to open them that night *facepalm*)
The gas heater wasn't on yet btw! Omg just read it back it sounded awful lol
Load More Replies...My dad wasn't that concerned when I wandered off at Disneyland when I was 5-y/o.
Maybe he just doesn't like being captive and wants to taste the "wild" life. You have gone to college ,let him be a teenager too.
It's so scary losing a small animal. I have rats and have lost them a few times but luckily it is never permanent. Once I forgot to close the cage door and they explored the house all night. I woke up to my sister saying that Lark was in her room. As soon as I walked in and sat down Wren sauntered out of the closet and said hi (and also got a huge amount of treats). Lark was harder to get out of her hiding spot, but she came in the end and got showered in relieved treats and kisses.
Omg I can so relate, they r so hard to find it's scary when they bust out!
Load More Replies...One time, we let are medium sized dog outside, and he somehow squeezed out of the fence and ran away. We had no idea until a random stranger called us and said she had our dog, and then drove to our house to drop him off. 😶
Hamster balls are dangerous for hamsters. This is wholesome, but they could improve on their care a bit. Their cage also seems a bit small. Super cute though.
I saw this on Dr. Oz and thought it was so funny, I had to see if I could find it online! My sister and I had hamsters as kids. The cage was in my room and mine would escape all the time. He would climb on top of the wheel and push the lid off! He chewed up the carpet,going under my doortrying to get out of my room . We always found him because he never actually escaped my room!
I'm sorry for didn't like her answer "it is just an hamster" dam girl, treat him like your child. i hate those kind of people who don't take their pets seriously. i have 7 hamster and all of them are my sweet babies.
This was too cute! I loved that he put flour out to watch for footsteps! My daughter has two rats, and they are my little grandbaby rats, love them to death. We often let them out, and normally just hide under the couch... she went to bed and i said I would put them up before I went to bed, well I couldn't find them anywhere! Wish I would have thought about the flour! I took all the cushions off the couch, put food and water out, and they came out the next morning. They are little stinkers!
Glad he found it! When my sister was in college she left her apartment for several weeks for the Xmas holidays. When she came home there was this awful stench and she found a dead hamster in her empty trash can. Apparently one of her top level neighbor had lost their pet and it somehow found it's way to my sister's apartment, fell in the trash can and starved to death. Poor thing. :'(
I had several hammies when I was a kid. They always come out of hiding when they get hungry enough. Luckily we never had cats and our Dachshund never found them either.
Tho the cynics here question as to the truthfulness of this story and gripe that the daughter said "just a hamster" ... the reality is ... hamsters escape, daughters [and sons] can be raised in a caring and loving home so that when it comes to priorities, they know that calming down the distraught dad is of slightly more importance at that moment than saying "OH dad! NO! Chester is the love of my life, how could you let this happen??!!" Sometimes the sensitivity of the moment calls for reassurance with whatever words are needed, and this daughter clearly understood her dad was upset and he needed to be calmed for his own good and for him to focus on finding Chester. Sod off you cynics. Go play somewhere else.
He is an awesome dad to be so worried and put in so much effort to find the little bugger. Very glad that he was found!
Ha Ha Ha. this has got to be the funniest post I have ever seen. Imagine if you were a hamster locked inside a cage - wouldn't you also like to go exploring?
One of my gerbils escaped under a bookcase once when my dad was holding her and he was really worried. I told him I knew a way to catch her and sellotaped two toilet rolls together, blocked off one end with some taped on card and put some food in so it was at the end that was blocked. I put the unblocked end next to the gap in the bookcase and told dad to listen for nibbling. I went to my room so there was minimal noise to scare her and waited. Less than half an hour later he called upstairs to say she was in the tube. Works every time.
My dog decided to walk out between my legs when I opened the door to go get the mail. It was dusk so it was kinda hard to see and Jack Jack is roaming the bushes as I berate him for being "horrible" and how he "belonged indoors and who did he think he was wandering around without my permission" and to hurry up cause "I haven't got all night". My brand new (just moved in)neighbor comes walking up from between our houses and starts apologizing about being in my yard. Suddenly I realize, my poor brand new neighbor who I haven't quite met yet thinks I'm talking to him. I started laughing and apologizing like crazy while scooping up my little ankle biter dog. My new neighbor is really nice. His name is Jake.
Our pets become our fur babies. They become a family member. When my son recently rang to ask if there was anything that he should have ready if they were evacuated, I told him to that nothing in the house was that precious except the living things! The fire plan was to get himself, his two dogs and his sisters cat out and, if there was no danger to himself, my hen. I also told him to leave her if he had to as I assumed the fire would come down the hill close to her run. So he would have to go towards the fire to get her. The evacuation didn’t happen and they are all safe.
I held in my awwww right up until the part about the flour :) how sweet
My boyfriend and I had once 3 rats. I wasnt living with him yet but i still had a key to his apartement and slept over a lot of time (he lived with his mom at that time). So one day this one rat figured out how to open the cage by observing us and opened it with its mouth and tiny paws. All 3 rats escaped and his mom freaked out so much because she kinda found them cute but was scared of them at the same time. So she called my boyfriend over a dozen times, left panicked voice mails and messages saying that the rats escaped and she dont know how to get them bavk in the cage. So my boyfriend who was still working, called me and said i need to help her and get there ASAP. So i just finished work and went there as quick as i could, just to find his mom with shoes and gloves on and the rats food in her hand. She said she lured one with food into the transport cage and the other one into the normal cage but couldnt find the 3rd rat. It was so funny how she freaked out but at the same time was worried they might get hurt or escape because she knew we cared about them and she grew used to them either. :)
"I'm so wicked sorry"... LOL. So now we know that Daniel Veerman is from Boston.
This is all very cute but if you love your pet, you should give him a companion of its own specie. A cat or a dog can go outside to meet their peer but a poor hamster is alone in its cage its whole life and I don't think that a human can bring it the same companionship.
Not with hamsters. Two in a cage together will fight and you may end up with one of them dead. Roborovski dwarf hamsters should be okay.
Load More Replies...Mine ran away three times in a week too so long to find her when I did and put her back she escaped again the next day. The last time she ran away w the help of my dog knocking her new cage over we couldn't find her. A little over a year later still no hamster. We have cats and I pray they didnt find her havent found a body and no smell so im hoping w luck she will turn up. Miss my little teddy bear hamster. She always reached out when my dad walked by her cage and she would make squeaking noises so he would play w her.
What does " just a hamster" mean? Was it a toy, or a living, breathing, little being? I so hate that phrase!
...so you have a daughter that says "It's just a hamster"? I'm sorry for you. Something went wrong there and it obviously wasn't you.
I had a hamster who would routinely go on travels for about 3 days at a time. Seeing as he came to us from who knows where, just came up to the back porch and waited until we picked him up and made him a home, I figured he couldn't be tamed! He was very sweet while at home, though. I still miss the little hamster that picked us.
Once lost my hamster. Woke up the next day to my grandma shouting "MOOOOOUSE" and trying to kill it with a broom :D fortunately I was quicker to save it
Oh my just envisioned that xD Poor hamster must have been terrified xD
Load More Replies...Good on dad. This isn't 'just' a hamster! He's a living creature that feels pain and fear - it's absolutely right that dad makes an effort to ensure the little critter is safe. If you have pets, even if you end up with them because your kids leave home, you absolutely have a duty to keep them from harm. Totally behind dad on this.
Scroll back. She clarified in a tweet that Chester is the light of her life and she only said that to calm down her dad who was panicking
Load More Replies...A workman left the door open and my maltipom ran out of the house. I screamed “get back in here” and the workman sheepishly said “yes mam” and came back in the house. Ha! I did get my Howdy back in the house as well.
Hahaha - hilarious!! Glad your little dog was okay though. Maltipoms are adorable. When my dog unexpectedly got out we hadn't had him long, a little rescue, we found shouting 'treats' worked better than calling his name.
Load More Replies...The coolest thing, my mum took on my king snake when i went back to Uni. She started throwing in the (dead) mouse, but by the time i came home she had him around her neck. He like her so much she suggested buying it off me. I gave her the responsibility of looking after him for free.
When our blind cat escapes into the city, I started having dreams of of him with me apologizing for letting him get away. After about 1,000 notes in people's mailboxes we ended up getting a lead and finding him. He had been alone with no eyesight downtown for 6 weeks. More skin and bones then anything else, he had developped a taste for stale bread. No moment felt ever so blessed as when he was found.
one of our hamsters got out a few years back. me and my wife were tearing apart the whole apartment trying to find her. when i was pulling everything out of the utility room to see if she made it behind the washer/dryer, i turned around and saw the little s**t just staring at me from the hallway a couple feet away with a "whatcha doin?" look on her face. love hamsters.
My BFF from elementary school had her hamster escape and was lost for MONTHS before he turned up again one day while she was sitting on the floor reading a book. Apparently he had a wonderful adventure in the baseboards of their house, living off crumbs and trash. He returned to his little cage and lived the rest of his life in pampered luxury, never having to scrounge for kibble again. ( I always thought of the inner life of houses as a parallel universe after that)
Been there, done that :D He hid behind a wardrobe. A rat trap of the cage-type was the solution, loaded with goodies a grumpy hamster was sitting in it the morning after!
One day I thought my Chihuahua had gotten out, when a roommate left the door open. I literally had random strangers from the neighborhood, that had been bike riding, helping me look for Evan. Finally I gave up and came home for a minute to regroup with my roommates and I thought I heard something, so I made everyone be very quiet. It seemed like it was coming from inside a lazy boy chair. Sure enough my dog had been underneath and someone closed the chair and he got stuck inside! Thank God he wasn't hurt and he hadn't run away, but I sure felt silly having to tell all the people helping me look, what had actually happened.
One of my cats does this! Now we're all very careful we can see her before the chair gets closed up again
Load More Replies...So am I the only one wondering why a 19 year old college sophomore can't take care of her own hamster?
Hamsters also don't live that long so are we supposed to believe that she suddenly went to college unexpectedly?
Load More Replies...I had pet mice as a kid. They would occasionally escape. I still remember the time my mom was on the phone with someone and said "I have to go. My daughter's mice just showed up." Not a sentence one commonly hears.
I had hermit crabs when I was a kid and I would announce to everyone I saw and talked to "I HAVE CRABS". Yea.....
Load More Replies...Funny this would be a non story is the parent was the mom. Why do we assume men dont care/cant be loving/ protective? Then we are sticker shocked when he steps up...people act like he's a hero. In reality he is just a dad..this is what dads do. We really need to stop stereotyping men as being emotionist beings
My pet rat escaped on the morning of my first ever university exam. I was panicking, and ready to miss the exam. Heard rat noises in the lounge so went in there and shut the door. Ffwd: so glad I waited (I did make it to the exam), as it was a cold day, my flatmates were about to get up, and I found her inside the gas heater!! It took a piece of banana with honey in it to convince her to come out. And then I had to padlock her cage doors when I was out (turns out she'd learned how to open them that night *facepalm*)
The gas heater wasn't on yet btw! Omg just read it back it sounded awful lol
Load More Replies...My dad wasn't that concerned when I wandered off at Disneyland when I was 5-y/o.
Maybe he just doesn't like being captive and wants to taste the "wild" life. You have gone to college ,let him be a teenager too.
It's so scary losing a small animal. I have rats and have lost them a few times but luckily it is never permanent. Once I forgot to close the cage door and they explored the house all night. I woke up to my sister saying that Lark was in her room. As soon as I walked in and sat down Wren sauntered out of the closet and said hi (and also got a huge amount of treats). Lark was harder to get out of her hiding spot, but she came in the end and got showered in relieved treats and kisses.
Omg I can so relate, they r so hard to find it's scary when they bust out!
Load More Replies...One time, we let are medium sized dog outside, and he somehow squeezed out of the fence and ran away. We had no idea until a random stranger called us and said she had our dog, and then drove to our house to drop him off. 😶
Hamster balls are dangerous for hamsters. This is wholesome, but they could improve on their care a bit. Their cage also seems a bit small. Super cute though.
I saw this on Dr. Oz and thought it was so funny, I had to see if I could find it online! My sister and I had hamsters as kids. The cage was in my room and mine would escape all the time. He would climb on top of the wheel and push the lid off! He chewed up the carpet,going under my doortrying to get out of my room . We always found him because he never actually escaped my room!
I'm sorry for didn't like her answer "it is just an hamster" dam girl, treat him like your child. i hate those kind of people who don't take their pets seriously. i have 7 hamster and all of them are my sweet babies.
This was too cute! I loved that he put flour out to watch for footsteps! My daughter has two rats, and they are my little grandbaby rats, love them to death. We often let them out, and normally just hide under the couch... she went to bed and i said I would put them up before I went to bed, well I couldn't find them anywhere! Wish I would have thought about the flour! I took all the cushions off the couch, put food and water out, and they came out the next morning. They are little stinkers!
Glad he found it! When my sister was in college she left her apartment for several weeks for the Xmas holidays. When she came home there was this awful stench and she found a dead hamster in her empty trash can. Apparently one of her top level neighbor had lost their pet and it somehow found it's way to my sister's apartment, fell in the trash can and starved to death. Poor thing. :'(
I had several hammies when I was a kid. They always come out of hiding when they get hungry enough. Luckily we never had cats and our Dachshund never found them either.
Tho the cynics here question as to the truthfulness of this story and gripe that the daughter said "just a hamster" ... the reality is ... hamsters escape, daughters [and sons] can be raised in a caring and loving home so that when it comes to priorities, they know that calming down the distraught dad is of slightly more importance at that moment than saying "OH dad! NO! Chester is the love of my life, how could you let this happen??!!" Sometimes the sensitivity of the moment calls for reassurance with whatever words are needed, and this daughter clearly understood her dad was upset and he needed to be calmed for his own good and for him to focus on finding Chester. Sod off you cynics. Go play somewhere else.
He is an awesome dad to be so worried and put in so much effort to find the little bugger. Very glad that he was found!
Ha Ha Ha. this has got to be the funniest post I have ever seen. Imagine if you were a hamster locked inside a cage - wouldn't you also like to go exploring?
One of my gerbils escaped under a bookcase once when my dad was holding her and he was really worried. I told him I knew a way to catch her and sellotaped two toilet rolls together, blocked off one end with some taped on card and put some food in so it was at the end that was blocked. I put the unblocked end next to the gap in the bookcase and told dad to listen for nibbling. I went to my room so there was minimal noise to scare her and waited. Less than half an hour later he called upstairs to say she was in the tube. Works every time.
My dog decided to walk out between my legs when I opened the door to go get the mail. It was dusk so it was kinda hard to see and Jack Jack is roaming the bushes as I berate him for being "horrible" and how he "belonged indoors and who did he think he was wandering around without my permission" and to hurry up cause "I haven't got all night". My brand new (just moved in)neighbor comes walking up from between our houses and starts apologizing about being in my yard. Suddenly I realize, my poor brand new neighbor who I haven't quite met yet thinks I'm talking to him. I started laughing and apologizing like crazy while scooping up my little ankle biter dog. My new neighbor is really nice. His name is Jake.
Our pets become our fur babies. They become a family member. When my son recently rang to ask if there was anything that he should have ready if they were evacuated, I told him to that nothing in the house was that precious except the living things! The fire plan was to get himself, his two dogs and his sisters cat out and, if there was no danger to himself, my hen. I also told him to leave her if he had to as I assumed the fire would come down the hill close to her run. So he would have to go towards the fire to get her. The evacuation didn’t happen and they are all safe.
I held in my awwww right up until the part about the flour :) how sweet
My boyfriend and I had once 3 rats. I wasnt living with him yet but i still had a key to his apartement and slept over a lot of time (he lived with his mom at that time). So one day this one rat figured out how to open the cage by observing us and opened it with its mouth and tiny paws. All 3 rats escaped and his mom freaked out so much because she kinda found them cute but was scared of them at the same time. So she called my boyfriend over a dozen times, left panicked voice mails and messages saying that the rats escaped and she dont know how to get them bavk in the cage. So my boyfriend who was still working, called me and said i need to help her and get there ASAP. So i just finished work and went there as quick as i could, just to find his mom with shoes and gloves on and the rats food in her hand. She said she lured one with food into the transport cage and the other one into the normal cage but couldnt find the 3rd rat. It was so funny how she freaked out but at the same time was worried they might get hurt or escape because she knew we cared about them and she grew used to them either. :)
"I'm so wicked sorry"... LOL. So now we know that Daniel Veerman is from Boston.
This is all very cute but if you love your pet, you should give him a companion of its own specie. A cat or a dog can go outside to meet their peer but a poor hamster is alone in its cage its whole life and I don't think that a human can bring it the same companionship.
Not with hamsters. Two in a cage together will fight and you may end up with one of them dead. Roborovski dwarf hamsters should be okay.
Load More Replies...Mine ran away three times in a week too so long to find her when I did and put her back she escaped again the next day. The last time she ran away w the help of my dog knocking her new cage over we couldn't find her. A little over a year later still no hamster. We have cats and I pray they didnt find her havent found a body and no smell so im hoping w luck she will turn up. Miss my little teddy bear hamster. She always reached out when my dad walked by her cage and she would make squeaking noises so he would play w her.
What does " just a hamster" mean? Was it a toy, or a living, breathing, little being? I so hate that phrase!
...so you have a daughter that says "It's just a hamster"? I'm sorry for you. Something went wrong there and it obviously wasn't you.
I had a hamster who would routinely go on travels for about 3 days at a time. Seeing as he came to us from who knows where, just came up to the back porch and waited until we picked him up and made him a home, I figured he couldn't be tamed! He was very sweet while at home, though. I still miss the little hamster that picked us.
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