hamster tales

i introduced you to hammy in a previous blog. hope you didn't get too attached to him and his cuteness, because 5 days after he joined our family, max came to tell me that "hammy's dead."...i said, "how do you know? are you sure?"...max said, "he's curled up in a ball and he's hard as a rock." ok, so that was a pretty good indication. max's next question: "what do we do with him?" so i'm thinking, oh my gosh we're going to have to have a funeral and a burial and i'm not in the mood for grave digging. so i said "what do you want to do with him?" to which max replies, "throw him over the hill?" i thought that sounded like a winner, so after i made sure he was serious and after he couldn't find hammy's receipt, that's what happened. well, not immediately. hammy had to lie in state for a few hours while we taxied blake and luke around to their lawn mowing jobs. when we got home, blake and luke were out in the yard putting up the lawnmower, etc., and max came in to get hammy for his big ceremony. i just stood at the kitchen window watching and listening. his brothers and i both figured that he'd give hammy a little toss and that'd be that. but max wound up like he was pitching in the world series and away hammy went! it was kind of like one of those slow-motion moments when you know something's happening but it's kind of so unbelievable that it doesn't quite register in your brain yet, even though you're watching it. when hammy landed (quite a thud) blake and luke looked at me with hilarious looks of disbelief. and i absolutely LOST IT. i haven't laughed that hard or that long for a very very long time. our neighbors probably thought we were nuts. and every time we tell the story we laugh all over again. max was good with it too. had i known how comical the whole thing was going to be, i'd have taken video of it. or at least taken a good picture of the process. but no such luck! hope hammy biodegrades soon - if we look closely we can still see him out there. you can see him too - click on that picture of the woods up there and at the base of the letter "y"...that's little hammy.

so thursday max decided to try hamsters again. we went to the same pet store and he purchased a baby hamster, thinking that he would be able to have it for a long time. he was very cute - teeny tiny. max named him hammy. (why mess with a good thing?) hammy #2 did well until saturday afternoon when he started shaking like he was having little seizures or something and pretty soon, he assumed the curled up in a ball position and max knew what was coming. he kept his receipt this time, so off to the pet store we went with a dying baby hammy #2 in a little box. max is getting some good experience with death and dying.... oh well, at least he got his $10.55 back this time. money enough to investigate a different pet store with different hamsters who might not be diseased or on their way to hamster heaven. off we go to what he now thinks is the coolest pet store ever. they had lots of hamsters and he chose a black and white one who looked pretty active in the cage. and active he is. his name is oreo and he is a spaz. he should fit right in around here. hope he makes it longer than his predecessors. if he doesn't, i wonder if max will want his $6 back or if he'll opt for a repeat of the baseball burial?