Sammy the Hamster

Source:King-animal.blogspot.com

During the child rearing experience a parent is almost always faced with the inevitable request for a pet hamster. Ours was named Sammy and he lived in a big fish tank. He had a food dish, an exercise wheel and some toys - - but,  Sammy wasn’t happy. 

One day I looked in the fish tank to find that Sammy was gone. I frantically searched the house calling his name, but prodigals don’t listen and neither do hamsters. Sammy did show up a few hours later so I scooped him up and placed him back in his warm shavings. I took some corrective action and placed heavy cardboard on top of the fish tank to hopefully deter him, but Sammy was too smart for me. Time after time he got out, even when the cardboard was weighed down with books. I couldn’t figure out how he was escaping!

We decided to get Sammy a hamster ball so he could run freely, but I guess it just wasn’t quite the freedom he desired because one day I caught him trying to escape again. There he was acrobatically perched on the top of his wheel, his little body stretched beyond its limit, his cheeky little pouches stuffed rock hard with food. Talk about determined! I didn’t have the heart to take his beloved wheel away, so it wasn’t a big surprise when later he got out again.

This time I found him on the basement floor. He had found an open spot at the bottom of our main floor closet that would take him onto a high ledge in the basement, unfortunately he missed the ledge and landed on the cold cement floor where I found him still alive. I gently lifted him onto a cloth and placed him on my chest hoping he could recover. I petted him and whispered soothingly hoping he’d be ok, but in a matter of minutes my chest became warm and wet. Sammy had passed on.

I honestly don’t remember where we buried him, but whenever I think of him I get this mental picture of Sammy with a stick over his shoulder, a checkered bag tied to the end of it, on another adventure.

Then I have another thought - - one that only a mother would have. “I bet there’s hamster pee all over this house!!”

True story!

Have a great day,

C~