The Houdini hamster! Pet disappears for six weeks after escaping from its cage and scaling a 7ft wall... before being reunited with its owner 

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It is a trick even the most skillful escapologist would have trouble beating.

But one Houdini hamster has certainly impressed her owners by breaking free of her cage and even beyond a 7ft garden wall.

The rodent's five-year-old owner Liam Lawrie was heartbroken when Gingy somehow managed to escape from the family home.

The rodent's five-year-old owner Liam Lawrie was heartbroken when Gingy somehow managed to escape from the family home

He and his parents, Nicola and Jonathan, searched their house high and low, convinced she could not have got out of their enclosed back garden.

When there was no sign of her, they feared the worst and even thought one of their pet dogs may have eaten it.

But almost six weeks later, Gingy and Liam have been reunited - after she turned up at a care home a mile from where they live in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire.

Mrs Lawrie, 37, said: 'How she survived for nearly six weeks, I have no idea.

'It's a busy road and there's a factory across from us and there are lots of seagulls flying around. It's amazing she wasn't picked up by one of them, or a cat.

'It would be interesting to know where she has all been. It must have been some adventure.'

The curious creature miraculously survived sub-zero temperatures, snow and rain as it scurried about the busy built-up area for a month-and-a-half.

Her adventure only came to an end when she turned up outside the town's Allandalle House care home last month.

A worker, who was on her cigarette break, initially mistook Gingy for a rat, before she scooped him up and took him home.

Gingy managed to scale this seven foot wall - and was eventually found a mile away 

In a lucky twist of fate, the next day she sent her husband to the local pet shop, where Liam's aunt Anna Anderson is manager.

Mrs Anderson had bought Gingy for Liam six months earlier because he wanted a ginger hamster to match his hair.

She said: 'The man came into the shop and asked what he needed for a hamster because his wife had found one. We got talking and I said, 'it's not ginger, by any chance? and he said, 'yes, it's ginger and white'.

'I showed him photos of Gingy and, when I phoned Liam's mum to tell her we might have found her, Liam over-heard the conversation and was so happy he was doing cartwheels.

'She was a lot skinnier than before and we were worried she might not be as tame after being away for so long, but when she saw Liam it was almost like she thought, 'Thank God, it's you'.

'That is one lucky hamster.'

Liam had been so upset at losing Gingy his aunt had bought him another hamster just days before his pet turned up.

But his mum said: 'He kept asking about Gingy. Now he's got her back, he's over-the-moon.

'But we have no idea how she managed to get out of her cage, let alone the garden.

'We've got a cat flap for our chihuahuas and we think that's how he got out of the house. But the garden has slabs and a seven-foot dyke. It's not like there was earth for her to have dug through.

'But thanks to a lot of coincidences we've finally got her back.'

Not only was it luck that the woman sent her husband to Paws and Claws Pet Emporium, but it was Mrs Anderson's first day back at work after being off ill.

Mrs Lawrie, an administrator, who is also mum to Layton, 11, said: 'If anyone else had served the man they might not have put two and two together.

'We still can't believe she survived so long. It's a miracle.

'Now we have two hamsters, and we have locks on both their cages so neither of them can escape because we have no idea how she did it.'