WHEN a cat broke into hamster Pipsqueak’s cage, his distraught owners presumed him dead. But the plucky rodent proved too much of a match for the moggy, and was found alive in a neighbour’s garage a day later.

The Siberian hamster was missing and his cage completely broken last Thursday morning, leaving eight-year-old owner Callum Chalkley so upset, that he missed a morning at school.

When Pipsqueak couldn’t be found in the house, it looked even more ominous, and Callum’s parents Chris and Sarah came to the conclusion he had been eaten.

But a day after he went missing, the family got a knock on the door from neighbour Stuart, who had found Pipsqueak in his garage several houses away.

“We’ve got two cats of our own, and because of a cat flap, we also have other cats wandering in,” said Chris, who lives in Newis Crescent, Clifton.

“I usually shut the living room door, where the hamster is, but I stupidly forgot this time. When we came down the next day, the cage was broken.

“My wife was in the playground, chatting to some of the mums about it, saying how distraught our son was. Then later, we got a knock on the door from a man who lives about 100 yards away, who said his wife had overheard my wife mention a hamster. He put two and two together, and came round to our house.”

Although only Pipsqueak himself knows what really happened, the eight-month-old hamster would have had to travel along the road to get to the garage, and evaded poison put down by pest control worker Stuart.

“I’ve never seen Callum smile so much in my life,” added Chris on Pipsqueak’s return. “[Stuart] had put Pipsqueak in a bucket to keep him safe. He let me take him home in this bucket, and he was hiding in the corner, obviously quite scared.

“But when I walked in the house, and the hamster heard my son’s voice, he was running round in the bucket in circles, going crazy.

“He now seems more keen to get out of his cage than normal. I think he enjoyed the journey.”