Ice-Cold Bud: Hamster Escapes Death In Freezer

SALEM, Ore. - Bud the hamster survived a frosty night in the family freezer - to the delight of his 6-year-old owner.

``I thought he would go up to heaven, and my mom would buy me a new one,'' Bradley Snoddy of Salem said late last week.

Bradley's mother, Mary Ann Snoddy, thought Bud, who was curled up in a corner of his cage, was dying of old age. Bud was 4 years old, far beyond the 1 1/2 to 2 years hamsters usually live.

She said she called a Salem pet store and was advised to put the animal out of its misery. She was told to put Bud in the freezer, where he would ``fall asleep and not wake up.''

She wrapped Bud in a cloth and put him in a paper bag. She put the bag in the freezer.

``We had a very rough night. We were totally devastated,'' Snoddy said. ``My son was in tears all night.''

But Bud emerged the next morning, seated on frozen food and mysteriously rejuvenated.

``I opened the freezer door, and flop, onto the floor fell the hamster. He sat up on his hind legs, and looked at me like, `Why did you do this to me?' ''

During the night, Bud had chewed through the paper bag and dined on an arctic smorgasbord of bread and hash browns.

``He's just fine. Just the regular, normal hamster that we had before,'' Snoddy said.

Veterinarian Stephanie Hazen said the Snoddys got bum advice. ``You can't kill hamsters by putting them in a freezer,'' she said. ``They live for days and days.''

Freezing is a slow, often painful death, she said. Hazen recommended that people take their dying animals to the Humane Society to have them euthanized painlessly.