That's very kind of you, Chief Chaos, but I am male. It wouldn't work out. Also, we hamsters are basically loners. Our idea of courtship is a brief, hectic encounter, often preceded by a fight. This is because female hamsters don't want to seem "easy". Also, they've got lousy tempers. Occasionally one does encounter a female hamster who is inclined to be friendly on first acquaintance, but that's fairly rare. Even in such cases it has to be a brief encounter, because we all prefer to live alone. The only real exception is as regards raising hamlets. The female of course is very loyal to her hamlets until they reach young adulthood. Then they get "the boot", if I may use a modern term.

Your friend Rufus sounds like a nice, idealistic rodent with a strong sense of purpose, and I hope he does well in life. I think you should try a personals column for rodents. There have got to be other naked mole rats out there looking for someone just like Rufus.

I have to report on the latest. I have severed the umbilical cord of the stereo successfully, without arousing any apparent reaction. I expect it will shortly get up and and leave when it wakes up and realizes that it is now free and independent. We'll see. Stereos should not be forced to digest awful stuff like this one has been subjected to in the last couple of days.

And now...off to further busy explorations! Life is good.

Corridus