If you haven't been keeping track, there are 36 shopping days until Christmas.

Every year, there seems to be one really hot toy. Remember the Cabbage Patch Kids and Tickle Me Elmo?

Well this year, the must-have toy is a pet for kids who want one and parents who don't. 

They were all Olivia Mondesando wanted for her birthday.

"Well, I felt really excited to get Zhu Zhu pets because I just love them," says Olivia.

They have names like "chunk," "pipsqueek," and "num nums."

Suddenly these robotic rodents top every little girl's holiday wish list.

"And now it's definitely the toy that everyone wants that you can't find," says Olivia's mother Debra Mondesando.

Melissa Post has been on a hamster hunt for weeks now for her daughter Jessica.

"And I called every Toys R Us, Walmart and Target within 2 hours of my home," says Post.

Zhu Zhu Pets retail for only $8, but that's if you can find one.

On the Internet, they're going for much more.

But the hottest holiday toy doesn't come from one of the mega toy makers. It's made by the little, St.Louis based, Cepia Company.

"In our world wide network we have 16 people here in St. Louis, Mo. We have about 25 people in Shenzhen, China," says Cepia representative Natalie Hornsby.

Cepia came up with the toy hamster idea only a year ago. Toys R Us helped test market them in Phoenix.

"And we couldn't believe the numbers," says Toys R Us CEO Jerry Storch. "Because they were selling so rapidly, we'd never seen anything like it."

Now fans are filling YouTube with their Zhu Zhu videos.

One analyst projects holiday sales of $50 million.

Cepia has cranked up three more factories in China to try to keep up with demand. 

We called around to see if any mid-Missouri stores had any Zhu Zhu Pets in stock.

We checked with the Wal-Mart and Target stores in both Jefferson City and Columbia, as well as Toys R Us in Columbia.

There are none in stock at any of those stores. Toys R Us will be getting some in though on Friday.