Other Hammies That Are Remembered Here
Joshua, our beloved hamster, died on April 5, 1998. He was our first hamster
and the father of all of the first family of ten babies. They were the most beautiful babies and very diverse in color. Why, he managed to father three albino's, one of them long haired, triplet brown teddys, twin black hamsters, one tan and another that looked just like him, Joshua JR. Sadly all of them are old and leaving us one by one. We loved them all. The great thing about all of them is that they respond to my voice and seemingly know their names this way.
Joshua was loving and friendly. We miss tucking him in our pocket and taking him with us to the corner store. He loved to go in the car! Sometimes he would sit on the couch with us and watch TV! He is dearly loved and sadly missed as well as his children. We have a new litter now, only 2 weeks old.
With our grief comes life beginning again.
Angel came to us from my neice. At first, well at first, I did not take to the idea of a hamster. But being it was my neice, who's own hamster Rosie just had 5 babies and had to find homes - I figured, okay I will take one. Well, Rosie's babies all stayed in the family - the largest of the group Silver, went to my mom. The only male Porchop stayed with my neice, I took Angel, and the Thelma and Louise went to my neices other grandmother. I took custody of Angel Thanksgiving of 1996. She was a bit apprehensive, a bit jumpy. I read up on the care of hamsters, and gave her a week to explore her new surroundings. I tried to pick her up a few times, and she hesitated. I figured, okay, I will wait til she's ready. Well, when two weeks passed, I thought, I want to hold her. So what I did was I would open her cage, she would climb out, and I put food in my hands ... ahhh, got her attention now. She finally came to me. We spent many hours just playing. I doted on her as a mother would dote on a child. She was my best friend. Our vacations were limited to "driving" vacations as I did not want to take her on the plane and didn't trust anyone else to care for her. She went on more vacations that most people did. She loved the car. She would run in her wheel when we would be on the road. Never got car sick, never got tired. She was great ... is great. My favorite memory would be, the time I let her run free ... normally she just takes off like a bandit and we would have to chase her down. Well, this time we were both occuppied ... I guess she wanted attention, so she started climbing on my hair, trying to reach the top of my head. I would just gently put her down and tell her to go play. Unsatisfied, she went on to her next play mate, with him, she climbed on his stomach and just sat there and watched him watch the news. Everytime he would put her on the couch, she would just climb up and watch him. Finally we stopped what we were both doing and decided to play with her. That's when she decided, okay, you guys can go now, I want to run under the couch ... and off she went. She is like that, a little teaser who needed attention. I miss her, I miss her alot. But the curious thing, and this is true. Angel was the smallest of Rosie's bunch. The nite I discovered that she had left, I immediately phoned my neice to let her know. She comforted me, as she had been through a few hamster passings. Well, when my sister in law heard the news, she decided to check on Rosie (Angels mommie) ... we learned that Rosie had passed the same day and almost the same time. We just figured, Rosie knew that her baby was not as strong as the rest, and her baby needed her, so she left to be with her. I don't mean to run on and on, but this just happened a while ago and it still is hard to accept. I do miss playing with her. I fed her everyday and we had a routine. She would sleep in my pocket and just sit on my shoulders while I finished the daily house chores. She was truly my friend and companion. To you Angel, thanks ... I still think about you and do miss you alot.
Last Updated: Tuesday, October 31/00
