Return of the Hamster in the Walls

Readers may or may not recall a certain Adam storyline I reprinted two weeks ago in the vein of an old-timey horror narrative, The Hamsters in the Walls.  It started off as innocuously as this...

And ended up like this.

But that wasn't the whole story.  It was only when I started going through every Newspaper strip of 1992 that I noticed something I had previously missed.  When I go through old Newspaper archives in search of stories, I generally start from a Saturday strip, then work my way backwards to see what the rest of the story was.  However, due to having some holes in my collection and the loose format of Newspaper strips not necessarily lasting the whole week means that unless I pay diligent attention, some minor story elements can get lost.

It also annoys me that I'm the only one who pays as much attention to comics from my childhood that no one else bothers to put up.  Once again, it falls to me to fill in the missing gaps.

That said, it turns out that just three days after the Hamster saga concluded, there was one more follow-up comic to tie up any possible loose ends.  The adults are in bed, ruminating over the events of the week and - OH GOD, NO.

...At least, that's what the online archive result showed up.  However, doing a little digging, I managed to retrieve a clear accurate scan that's closer to what we were actually supposed to see.

As clear as this representation is, I can't help but prefer the earlier version that ironically fits the horror narrative closer than I ever intended.

So, with this extra epilogue added, I might as well tack on a fitting ending:

"The parents went back to sleep satisfied with their effort and hard work, never suspecting that there was still a living creature lurking inside the walls... waiting... waiting..."

...and that's the last we ever hear of these hamsters ever again.  Much like their dog, they just spontaneously vanished from view as if they never existed in the first place.