Poor wittle hamster!

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-15-2007
Poor wittle hamster!
6
Wed, 08-01-2007 - 3:37pm

About 40 minutes ago I took a peek at all the hamsters just to see them. Natalie's was laying in his cage kind of oddly. So I reached in to pick him and knew instantly he was ill if not dying. I knew I had to get him back to the pet store for them to help but how do I do that without telling Natalie what was wrong. I don't. So I called her up and she saw I had her little cotton ball (my nick name for him) in my hand. She got this big smile on her face and asked me if it was time to hold hamster. (I set times or they would be holding them all day long and they need rest.) I move times back when they open a cage without permission or when told not to and they do it anyway.

Oh how I hated seeing that smile leave her face. I told her no, not time to hold the hamster. I made her sit down, then I told her that something was wrong with her hamster. She adores this hamster. She sees it as her baby, it's very young, the youngest out of all three we have. Very tiny little guy. So, we call him baby cause he is so young and so tiny. Oh gosh, she just started getting red eyes and they teared up her nose turned red and she just starting crying. She asked to see him. So I gently laid Dopey in her hands. She just bawled her eyes out and told him how much she loved him. On the way she told him sorry if she had done anything to hurt him. She hasn't, she has been taking prestine care of the little guy. Better then her sister actually. Which surprises me completely! She cried all the way to the pet store.

We got to the pet store and they said they could have their vet look at him and see if they could help him. I told them I couldn't pay for any vet care and they said I wouldn't have to. So they are putting him in isolation and seeing if they can figure out why he is doing this and if they can help him out. I should get a call sometime this afternoon, before 5pm. She didn't want to leave him there. She wanted to stay until we knew and I thought it beter if I took them all home, easier to distract them. She is doing better now, she will wander around the house once in a while, look at his cage sit and sigh real big. Matthew started a movie in the playroom so she is with Kate and Matthew watching a movie now. I hope it keeps her mind off her sick baby.

Did I mention I cried when I saw her sad little face and all those crocodile tears rolling down her cheeks. I hugged her up and held her real tight. While Kate cried silently watching Natalie and Mathew off to the side dealing with his memories. He's had two hamsters die and a hermit crab already in his 9 years. I could tell he was remembering just by how he was standing and the look on his face.

Ugh.

Chelle

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-06-2006
Wed, 08-01-2007 - 4:12pm
That's really sad, Chelle.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 10-31-2006
Wed, 08-01-2007 - 5:57pm
Awwww, Chelle, that is so sad!
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iVillage Member
Registered: 01-15-2007
Wed, 08-01-2007 - 10:17pm

Thank you Wendy. Well, it's not good news. I kinda wish they had let us go home with it so it could have died in her hands. She was so upset that he wasn't with her when he died.

I called them at 4pm to find out what was going on. I was told he had died. I mentioned to the lady on the phone that my daughter wanted to bury him in the backyard so she made sure the manager knew by the time we got there that we were taking him home. She picked out a new hamster but he's not as friendly. She will have to work with him a lot to get him use to her handling him. He is the same color and she named him the same name. I really encourage her to name him something else but she insisted he be Dopey too.

We had a funeral in the backyard, we bought (fake) flowers at Wal-Mart and she put them near his gravesite. We buried him under their tree house. Both girls had it rough understanding what has happen to him and why he looks the way he did (stiff) and why he was cold. A huge learning lesson on death. Kate was mad that God took him so early and I told her to not look at it like that. So we talked about the time we got to spend with him and how special he was to all of us. Natalie's outlook was more postive. She asked if he would always be her hamster and mentioned she would see him again up in heaven some day. She understands her time with him was special and that she was a lucky girl to have owned him. She is going through the normal mourning stages. I think Kate might be ahead of her, being angry with God about it. I'm not sure getting a new one right away was the right thing to do. She seems a tad standoffish from her new one. Like she really doesn't want to put the effort into another one. But, she insisted we get another one before we left the pet store.

He was a very sweet little hamster, all my experience with them he was quite unique. She was very lucky she found him. We all called him baby. LOL

Chelle

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-18-2007
Thu, 08-02-2007 - 7:56am
I hope that the hamster is ok!

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iVillage Member
Registered: 05-07-2007
Thu, 08-02-2007 - 5:03pm
That is so sad Chelle.
 

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iVillage Member
Registered: 07-30-2004
Thu, 08-02-2007 - 5:17pm
wow how sad for it to happen that way.

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