Don't read this if you hate sappy tragic blogging.
My hamster died today.
His name was Chami, or at least, it was after I took him over. It's a game reference, and I wasn't sure Boo would fit a dwarf hamster. The girl I got him from, bless her soul, wasn't sure how old he was (or if it was even a he), but I didn't care.
He was living in a pretty small travel-sized cage, which sucked, so the first thing I did was to get him a new cage. A big one.
That took some getting used to.
He wasn't all that friendly at first, probably hadn't had much contact with people, and he bit me all the time. But he stopped doing that after he realized I was giving him food... or maybe I just taste bad, I dunno.
I got a bit worried when he didn't run in his wheel, and although some websites said that this wasn't a bad sign (some hamsters just don't like to run), it kinda worried me. And after he started gnawing on the bars whenever he was bored, I went and got him a second cage with tubes connecting it to the old one. Yeah, I spoiled him rotten.
He started running in the wheel in that cage, which was a pleasant surprise, but after I'd cleaned it out it stopped squeaking when it turned, and he kinda lost interest. It made me happy, though, 'cause he always ran at 4 am sharp.
He was pretty damn picky with his food as well, and he only ate like... 2 of the 10 different things that came in the bag of hamster feed. I gave him salad and some parsnip whenever I had the mind to buy it, and he seemed to fancy that. I got him some hamster-sand as well, and he did sit an awful lot in it... don't think he ever cleaned himself with it though. Lazy ass...
This saturday morning, I got home to find a huge, bulbous thing at the corner of his mouth. I got really, really worried, and figured that since I've had him for about a year, he was going to pass on soon. They tend to get cancer and tumours a lot, apparantly.
I spent a few days being generally worried, hoping that it might solve itself or that... yeah, well, that he'd pass away in his sleep or something. He didn't seem to suffer though...
And today I went with him to the vet. On the way there, when I was feeding him some chocolate (I've never given him anything sweet as they have a tendency towards diabetes, but yeah), he climbed up in my hand... he's never done that before.
It was his cheek-pouch that had got turned inside out... If I'd come in with him right when it happened, it would've been alright... but now there really wasn't much they could do for him. They could've operated, but they weren't sure he'd be able to keep the pouch, nor that he'd survive the operation.
I heard him squeak for the first time when they put the first sedative in his neck, and he bit me (I was holding him). It all went rather quickly after that. He stumbled around a bit and then fell asleep in my hand. A little while later they gave him the next shot.
http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww24 ... C00129.jpg