I received a Ring Video Doorbell for Christmas, and we discovered a new use case for the product - and one that Ring definitely needs add to their Customer Stories and marketing materials.
A Christmas Hamster
We gave our 10-year-old daughter, Kit, a hamster for Christmas which she named Merry Merry. Kit adored her new hamster and was very diligent in taking care of Merry Merry each morning and night. Last Friday night, Kit had a sleepover so I decided to give Merry Merry a snack before I went to bed. Somehow, Merry Merry escaped during the night. When Kit came home the next morning, she discovered Merry Merry was missing.
Finding an Escaped Hamster is Not Easy
After freaking out a bit (ok, a lot!) and searching the entire house, we decided to wait Merry Merry out. If you Google "how to find a lost hamster", you'll notice that hamsters are well-known escape artists and one of the suggestions is to place food or sprinkle flour in strategic locations throughout the house to pinpoint their whereabouts. On Sunday, there was still no sign of her so we laid out some food in the garage to see if we could isolate her in there. On Monday morning, I had firm evidence that Merry Merry was hiding in the garage.
The Ring Doorbell to the Rescue
Then my 16-year old son, Henry, had a brilliant idea. I had not gotten around to installing the Ring Doorbell on our house yet, but I had it activated and ready to go. After he got home from school, he set up the Ring Doorbell in the garage next to Merry Merry's cage and a bowl of food. A nice feature about the Ring Doorbell is that you connect it to your smartphone via an app, and sends a notification when there is motion near the Doorbell.
I was skeptical of the idea because I didn't think the motion activated sensor would be enough to "see" a small hamster. Two hours later, I received a notification on my iPhone and I yelled for the family to view the live streaming video. After watching transfixed for a moment, we all rushed to the garage and my wife captured the missing hamster.
Case Closed - Thank You Ring
Ecstatic daughter. Happy hamster. New Ring Doorbell use case. Thank you Ring, you've made a 10-year-old girl very happy!
You can watch the entire Hamster Cam capture footage below.