Episode 8810-510 "IS THERE A HAMSTER IN THE HOUSE?"

Cliff bends his iron rule against pets in the house when he lets Rudy "baby-sit" her friend's hamster. When the little fellow develops a bad cold, Cliff and Rudy take him to the veterinary hospital's emergency room. There they witness a wee hours parade of strange animals with even stranger maladies. Despite all efforts, the hamster dies, prompting Cliff to finally tell the truth about his anti-pet stand. It seems when he was a boy, he sat on his pet finch, Charlie. And although he didn't kill him, the resultant trauma (for both boy and bird) brought Cliff's penchant for pets to a complete end.