Hello Dear Readers! Every once in a while it’s good to remember our fine furry friends, the hamsters. Here’s a story about one such little guy.
Our Hamsters, Ourselves
I’ll never forget our first hamster. He (or possibly she) was a cute little ball of white fur or maybe it was brown. I guess when I say I’ll never forget our first hamster, what I mean is I’ll never forget what happened to our first hamster, Snickers.
We knew Snickers was special the moment we saw him in the huge glass hamster case at the pet shop. I reached in to pick him up and he reared on his hind legs and tried to swat my finger away with powerful albeit tiny paws. This hamster had spunk. Plus he was only $5.99.
We took him to the cash register and the clerk suggested a few accessories we would need in order to properly care for a hamster. The total came to $213.17.
Holy Habitat!
Our hamster would need this habitat, she assured us, if he was ever going to thrive.
We bought this story hook, line and sinker, not to mention water bottle, bedding and food (ten-pound bag). We headed home with Snickers safely enclosed in a cardboard carrying case with handle ($3.99), and his habitat securely tied to the luggage rack of the car (twine $.99).
After several hours of intense concentration (and some dazzling duct-tape wizardry), we plopped Snickers into his newly assembled habitat where he quickly began chewing his way out.
Occasionally, we would take Snickers out of his habitat and try to pet him while he ran full throttle over our hands, up our arms and down our legs. Oh what fun we had with the little guy or gal!
But little did we know then what tragic circumstances lay ahead for our beloved Snickers – a tragic circumstance by the name of Lucy, our dog.
We thought Lucy was a pretty nice dog until the day we discovered that underneath her sweetness-and-light exterior lurked the primitive brain of a hunter/killer.
Her prey? Let’s just say Lucy enjoyed munching a Snickers now and then and I’m not referring to candy bars.
- . . . gulp! . . .
I still blame myself for Snickers’ death, which is why I am relating this story in the hope that others will learn the lesson for which our precious Snickers gave his (or her) life.
And that lesson is this: Never leave a child who is holding a hamster alone in the same room with a dog who likes to eat them (hamsters, not children).
Or better yet, don’t leave the room at all, ever! In this case, I was gone only seconds when I heard a terrible commotion followed by the bloodcurdling scream of a child and the rodent-like heart-wrenching squeak of . . . a rodent.
It seems the worst had happened. Left to the supervision of a child, Lucy and Snickers had gotten into a deadly altercation. I ran back to the room to find the child dazed and in shock, Lucy cowering in shame and Snickers resting in peace.
It took us awhile to recover from the incident. We had to read When Bad Things Happen to Good Hamsters twice before we had the heart to make another trip to the pet shop to pick out Snickers #2.
Update:
Ironically, Lucy has just returned home from the animal hospital after a close brush with death because of an acute case of pancreatitis.
The vet said Lucy would have to stick to a strict diet of chicken and rice. Anything else could kill her.
We can only hope Snickers #2 has the good sense to stay out of her way — for both their sakes.
Until next time . . . I love you
Linda Vernon Humor 
Well this I feel should be made into a Country & Western song. Your tale has all the ingredients (maybe just religion missing)! The Scottish comedian Billy Connolly once observed that the perfect title for a C&W song would be, ‘My Grandmother Died in the Grotto at Lourdes when a Hunchback Pushed Her In.’ Enough said, hope Lucy gets better.
Poor Snickers. Maybe if you named your next Hamster “Carrot” Lucy wouldn’t be interested because most often dogs don’t like veggies…
Ha! Yes but my horse Sedientariat loves carrots so . . .
Oh no! That’s a problem!
Oh boy… if I were that kid, I’d have foresworn meat, dogs and rodents all in one fell swoop.
That happened when my daughter was really little and she didn’t understand the concept that he was dead and still wanted to play with him. She set him up in front of the TV and said look mommy he’s watching TV. To tell you the truth she had more fun with him when he was dead. So we had to go bury him in the back yard and she kept trying to dig him up. Luckily she couldn’t remember where had was buried. It was like Weekend at Bernies Hamster style.
Oh my lands, this is my first read of the day and I had to share…you have left me giggling and sobbing, a tricky combination.
Thank you for visiting my poetry on Morgen Bailey’s fabulous blog because now I have had a chance to see what a cool lady you are, as well as a most talented story weaver. Have a lovely day, Maria
Oh Maria. I thank you so much for coming by! I will be visiting you blog often because I really loved the poems and I have a feeling there are more where those came from!! 😀 You have a lovely day too!
I feel terrible for little Snickers, and terrible for you at buying into a $200+ habitat! Dangggg!!!
My thanks to marcoujor for turning me onto a wonderful story. It went great with my coffee this morning. 🙂
Oh I’m so happy that you came by! Oh and I know those supplies were sky high. For a minute there I thought the clerk was going to make us fill out a loan application! But they are so darn cute. Maybe the moral to the story is to stay out of pet shops!! HA!
Hilarious…..we had a gerbil who met his fate at the expense of a child (my son)… the gerbil had escaped and we were all in the bedroom waiting for him to appear from under the bed. My son was on the bed… he spotted him first, jumped off the bed to catch the gerbil and landed right on top of him.
Squish. The end.
Nooo! You’re poor son! Tiny rodents bring out the best in us don’t they and sometimes with the worst possible consequences. I think everyone who has ever owned a hamster or a gerbil can totally relate. I bet there are a lot of funny hamster stories out there!
Oh man oh man oh man.
Whatever you do, Melissa, don’t ever take your girls into a pet shop! 😀
Snickers 2 might try to sneak in foods other than chicken and rice to Lucy to get his revenge! And being blind (from the pancreatitis) Lucy would never know. Maybe that’s how she REALLY died!
Ohh Jackie!! I smell a murder mystery. Or maybe that’s just Lucy breath.
Well, now you’ve ‘murdered’ by pet…. a tiny wee helpless hamster….. what/who is next on your hit list…? Diane
Ha ha! I think I’m going to have to change the name of my blog to Murder Inc. And my tagline will be: Where Murder Happens Approximately 37% more often . . .
Well… I’ve come to expect and anticipate… the next one .. Diane
Ah! Thanks Diane! I think Peanuts has a lot more stored in there somewhere! 😀
I hope Lucy is feeling better, and back in fine hamster-eating form soon!
Well, she’s lost my trust. Now every time I pick her up I’ll feel compelled to check to see if she has hamster breath.
Oh dear me! Friends of ours were cajoled into looking after a friends’ hamster and also a box of silk worms, whilst they were on vacation. The dogs got the hamster, and the silkworms all died too. They had to go and beg more silkworms from a neighbouring school, and they took the dead hamster to the pet shop and bought a clone.The friends never knew what happened. 😀
Ahaha! What a horrendously hilarious pet sitting adventure! Oh my god!
And what a great idea for them to just buy a clone! Brilliant! I’ll have to remember that trick if I ever pet sit a hamster. (If someone wants me to babysit silk worms though I think I’ll tell them I’m busy. I’m sure they would all die under my watch too!)
Me too. 😀