Season 5: Episode 109: Is There a Hamster in the House?
Caroline convinces Cliff to let Rudy watch her hamster, Darren, for the night while she is at her grandmother's house. Vanessa becomes upset and assumes that Cliff will eventually let Rudy get her own hamster. The kids believe that Cliff dislikes animals, but he claims that he fears that the kids will not be able to take care of pets properly. With some prompting from Theo, he reveals that he once sat on his pet bird Charlie. He survived, but never trusted Cliff again. Rudy is concerned when Darren becomes ill. Cliff thinks that Darren is okay, but later begins to worry. They take the hamster to the clinic and pay for X-rays, but it dies during the exam. Cliff buys a new hamster for Caroline and tries to pass it off as Darren. Caroline isn't fooled, but takes the news in stride. She says that the same thing happens every time someone else looks after her hamster. Russell tries to ease Cliff's guilt about his bird by telling him that his mother also had an accident with Charlie. She inadvertently put him in the washing machine, and he crashed into the walls after she revived him with brandy.