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Tweety, Tinkerbell and Peaches are probably not appropriate names for speed demons. But on Saturday afternoon in Bethesda, small furry creatures with those and other delicate monikers raced to benefit their fellow pets.
For the second year, the MacArthur Pet Shop hosted a derby for hamsters and gerbils that featured sunny weather, a youthful set of local owners and a sidewalk race track about 20 feet in length that occasionally seemed 10 times that long. Although lacking pit crews and oil changes, the pets did have plastic balls and exercise wheels rigged to tiny racing cars to help them across the finish line to make up for their lack of finely-honed racing knowledge.
More than $100 was raised, Reist said. The amount raised by adult side bets in the infield or along the railing remains unknown.
"If the hamster decides to sleep, it's fine. If the hamster decides to go backwards, it's fine," said Reist, who raised about $150 during last year's derby.
Reist said the idea for the derby began when store employees noticed that one particular hamster was burning up the store floor in an exercise ball shaped like a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
"It just looked so cute racing around," she said.
There were several heats of three hamsters and gerbils apiece to thin out the competition before the final race at the store. Observers were prohibited from giving propitious nudges and kicks to their racers. But a store employee did use a plastic American flag to keep the oblivious rodents from rolling into shopping center traffic. Sometimes, the pets lolled around the starting line for long periods, seemingly oblivious to the spectators' constant shouts of encouragement.
Ten-year-old Isabel Wilder of Washington, D.C., saw her gerbil Peaches rocket off the starting line, almost as if she actually knew what she was doing, and cruise to victory in the first heat. Although Peaches had participated in at least one prior hamster and gerbil race, Wilder said her pet has a very ad hoc training regimen.
"I just let her run around the house a lot," Wilder said.
Although Wilder was confident about Peaches' chances, Bethesda resident Julia Warker's Tweety triumphed in the final race. Just three weeks ago, Tweety and her sister Tiger were languishing in Reist's store, unwanted by their previous owner, when Warker purchased them. Warker, 9, was uncertain heading into the race even though both Tweety and Tiger were participating.
For her efforts, Tweety was rewarded with a sizeable bucket of hamster food and other goodies.
