The stillness and quietness of the morning, the warmth of a mug of tea and the comfort of a good book, no children calling for my help, a break, finally, after an especially demanding week, oh how I savoured it: peace.

“Mom, Peepicheep escaped!”

My peaceful morning, our planned family outing, were both shattered in that small moment. Had I been in the living room, I would have prevented my youngest child from looking away while she held the anxious little critter and we wouldn’t have spent our entire day off cleaning behind furniture and under the kids beds, in hopes of finding their pet hamster.

We were sure, at first, that the dog, who would give up a week’s worth of food to get near his rival, would sniff him out, that the little guy would be safe in his cage, and we would be soon be on our way. When that didn’t happen and we had moved the couches and other living room furniture, we sent each of the kids to clean all of their “treasured possessions” out from under their beds. We didn’t want to leave for fear the dog would find him while we were out.

We had already been planning to do a purge before Christmas, this just sped up our timeline. They pulled out piles of forgotten papers and toys, sorted through them and bagged up old drawings and crafts, all the while moving this or that, just hoping that their friendly, cuddly, and ever so tiny, pet would show up.

But no, he didn’t. I tried not to imagine one of them finding him after it was too late.

Cherry Blossom had already shed a few tears and I knew Panda would be crestfallen the next morning. He puts the wee fellow in his exercise ball every day while doing his schoolwork and the hamster runs around his room. His miniature study buddy.

We had searched high and low for that ball, as we now did for the hamster. The kids were insistent on having a ball so they could watch him run but things are never as easy as they sound, here in China. We looked through almost every pet store, at least thirty, in the Bird and Flower market until we finally found one.

It was worth the search and that is what we kept telling ourselves again. It’s worth all of this hard work. We will find him!

When the floors were swept, the garbage was out, and the sun had set, we all began to accept that we wouldn’t discover his hiding spot that day.

But in celebration of our hard work, we brought plates and forks to the coffee table and the kids watched a documentary called, “North America,” and dreamt of a place they can only imagine being their home.

Brian leaned back on the couch to get comfortable and he heard a slight sound.

The kids leaped up, the couch was on its side and they were ready to rip off the thin sheet of fabric that covered the bottom before I even knew what was happening. Hope was rising. A tear on the bottom of the couch created a hole that Peepicheep could have easily fit through. It seemed like the logical location.

But before we tore the couch apart our dog came to the rescue. He started sniffing and scratching incessantly at the part of the couch that Brian’s back had been resting on. While the rest of us debated where he could be, Bamboo Shoot managed to slip his hand into an unseen fold in the fabric and scoop out Peepicheep.

The little guy was saved!

The kids were thrilled. He may be small, but unlike the garbage bags of forgotten papers that sat outside our door, he is treasured!