Has anyone seriously ever caught the hamster? I have tried at least 50 times.

I have the latest version with all the patches. This to me is a bug in a game full of bugs. Too bad because I've enjoyed the game despite its flaws. Any suggestions are welcome. It seems to me after you click on "go back" to back away from the clock, that it takes two double-clicks to get to the hamster. And that's still not fast enough. There is no way to get there in a single click. It will be a shame to have to abandon the game because of this. It's very surprising that the developers have not addressed this problem in particular.

So does anyone have any suggestions how to get past this part?

Dan,

I sent you a saved game with a step by step.
This hamster part is glitchy.

Thank you. I ended up getting it.

For anyone else who had trouble with it, here is what I did:

After setting the clock and getting the "gong", click "Go Back". Then double click to the far left of the screen (about half way from the clock to the hamster) to get Ceville to run. Then use the space bar to highlight the hamster, and double-click on the "take hamster" text. This causes Ceville to run there before picking up the hamster. Previously I had been double clicking a second time to get him closer to the hamster before clicking "take hamster".

Finished the game. It was buggy and quirky, and some of the attempts at humor were really bad. But overall still a pretty fun game all things considered. Could have used a little more work, and definitely should have spent more time in QA before being released.

Thanks for the tip, Dan.