Hamster named Clover survives -19 weather while running wild in backyard for months

Wild hamsters tend to populate warm, dry locales like Syria, but one lucky little critter named "Clover" managed to survive on her ownfor monthslonger than expected in a Calgary backyard including temperatures below 19.

Alison Laberge says she first spottedClover in her backyard in the southwest Calgary neighbourhood of Wildwood in August.

"I went out just to look around the garden like everybody does in the beautifulCalgaryevenings in the summer and there was this little furry potato-sized being in the grass on the lawn," she toldtheCalgary Eyeopeneron Tuesday.

"This little hamster was just munching away on clover in the lawn. And so I grabbed some clover, put it in my hand, and she walked right over and started munching."

Unfortunately, after trying to put the hamster in a box, the creatureescaped under flowers and couldn't be found.

So Labergeposted the news on a few Facebook pages to try to gethelp.

"Oh, my goodness, the response from that group. They knew it was a hamster and they wanted me to rescue this poor hamster from the wild," she said.

"Clover got her name basically that evening or that day when it went on to the gardener site. So many people fell in love with her."

She didn't spot Cloveragain until September.

"I went back on the site andI showed another picture of her to reassure everybody she's still alive. And I still [didn't] know how to catch her," she said.

Luckily, Labergesays Clover must have had no trouble finding food since she looked like a "baked potato."

• Hear more about Clover's adventure on the Calgary Eyeopener.

"Between September 5th and the next time we spotted her, November 24th, we had a minus 19night in there. And so we discovered she must have been hiding under our steps," she said.

As the days grew colder,Labergedecided to askfriends to help her complete the rescue mission.

"That third appearance, I still didn't catch her, but other people started helping. Afriend brought over a box with some timothy hay. Another friend brought over a hamster cage."

It wasn't until thispast Saturday that all of the determination paid off.

"She came out and I could hear in the leaves. I walked over and gave her little food and she stayed still and I picked her up, put her in the cage, and then over 24 hours fell in love with her," she said.

However,Labergewasn't able to keep Clover permanently, so Ruth Smith stepped up to provide a home.

• See Clover the hamster explore her new home (and get checked out by Henry the cat) in this video from Ruth Smith, below

"I have been rescuing animals forever and we have quite a menagerie here. So I thought, well, Clover should just come join," said Smith.

"There's a cat and a rabbit that love each other here, and they sleep together all the time and stuff like that. So I thought, well, you know, a hamster would be a perfect addition."

Clover now lives in a large pen filled with ramps, tubes and nests so she has lots of room to explore, but this time it will be done with the warmth of indoors.

If you want to keep up with Clover, Smith says you can check out her Facebook page, where she will be streaming live videos of the hamster and other rescue animals.

With files from theCalgary Eyeopener.