Before there was Furby, there was Tickle Me Elmo. Before there was Tickle Me Elmo, there were Cabbage Patch Dolls.

 And now there are Zhu Zhu Pets.

 Considered the hottest - and most elusive - toys this holiday season, Zhu Zhu Pets are cheeky interactive hamsters, about the size of a 6-year-old's mitten. Pronounced "zoo-zoo," zhu zhu means "little pig" in Chinese.

And television-watching kids -particularly little girls - are smitten by the creatures, which go by the names of Patches, Chunk, PipSqueak, Mr. Squiggles and Num Nums.

 Billed as having artificial intelligence, the battery-powered hamsters can interact with their specially designed habitats (which are sold separately, of course). They have a nurturing mode and an adventure mode. The robotic hamsters squeal when their teeny noses are pressed, and they make funny, chattering noises.

 "They are the craze this year," said Shannon Povich, a Mountville mother of two little kids, who said her sister-in-law picked up two Zhu Zhu Pets for her weeks ago at a Toys "R" Us in Pittsburgh.

 Zhu Zhu Pets are made by Cepia LLC, a company based in St. Louis, Mo. The pretend hamsters retail for less than $10 each.

 But they're so popular that the stores that carry them - including Target, Toys "R" Us and Walmart -can't keep them in stock. Their accessories, which range from a hamster funhouse, to a hamster wheel and tunnel, to a surfboard and ramp, also can be difficult to find.

 Target in Lancaster received a supply of Zhu Zhu Pets Saturday, but the hamsters flew off the shelves.

 The Lancaster Toys "R" Us had some of the hamsters in stock Saturday, too, but they went fast, despite a one-per-customer limit.

 Toys "R" Us clearly is hoping to make hay with the Zhu Zhu craze on Black Friday.

 The company issued a press release last week, stating that the first 100 shoppers at each local Toys "R" Us on Black Friday will be given a ticket that will enable them to buy a Zhu Zhu Pet. Shoppers will be limited to one hamster per household. With the stores opening at midnight, it will take the earliest of early birds to snatch these hamsters.

 People who have found the Zhu Zhu shopping experience to be something akin to being trapped on a hamster wheel - there's so much legwork involved, and it's difficult to get anywhere - have turned to the Internet.

 Online, the prices for Zhu Zhu Pets are exorbitant.

 On Amazon Saturday evening, the gray hamster called Num Nums was priced as high as $66.50, and the light brown hamster called Mr. Squiggles was going for $68.95 - a markup of nearly 700 percent.

 Gale Long, a Manheim Township acupuncturist, said she understands that people are always on the lookout for money-making opportunities, but she thinks the Zhu Zhu scalping is getting out of hand.

 Long said she recently went on the Internet, searching for Zhu Zhu Pet accessories, and found that a Zhu Zhu habitat was selling on one site for $499. "I was like, that is nuts!'" Long said.

 Long said she has purchased two Zhu Zhu hamsters to give to her 2-year-old grandnephews.

 A client came in several weeks ago, and said, "Oh my gosh, these Zhu Zhu pets are all the rage," Long said.

 That client picked up two Zhu Zhu Pets for Long. She's promised to keep a look out for some accessories for Long, too.

 Long said she was not going to spend "an arm and a leg" on a car or a ball for a fake hamster. If she needs to, she said, she'll wait out the craze, and buy accessories for her grandnephews once the Zhu Zhu frenzy ebbs.

 Shannon Povich said her 6-year-old daughter really wants a Zhu Zhu hamster for Christmas, and she knows that when her 2-year-old son sees his sister's, he'll want one, too.

 So she's glad she already has the critters in hand, and won't need to go searching for them Black Friday.

 Povich said her daughter wanted a real hamster, but "these, you don't have to clean up after."

 "I think they're great," she said. "They're the cutest little things."

She has managed to find several Zhu Zhu accessories, including a funhouse, and a hamster car and garage. She purchased handmade beds that someone was marketing on eBay for the hamster toys. She tried bidding for a Zhu Zhu Adventure Ball on that Web site, but dropped out when the price got up to $40.

 Her husband, Jaison Povich, remembers stories of his own mother standing in line to buy a Cabbage Patch doll for his sister. So he said he understands his wife's excitement at being able to give their kids Zhu Zhu toys at Christmas.

 "I think I'm more excited than they will be," Shannon Povich said.

Contact Suzanne Cassidy, Sunday News Staff Writer, at scassidy@lnpnews.com.