She has some habits considered odd by humans .
For eg : Ms Im-Always-Grooming sleeps with poo . I have noticed that she always stores almost all of her poo in her sleeping area . Im constantly having to clear it out .
Now Flower can sniff out a treat a mile away and at night is by the door even before I bring it to her .
Another habit her perplexed owner has observed is that when she goes into the portaloo to piddle , she lifts her tail and aims her hiney as high as she possibly can spraying the wall of the loo . I guess I shouldnt be complaining ! At least shes doing her pee in the portaloo .
Flower's adventure :
On the 18th or was it the 19th of June 2004 Flower went missing . We noticed that the cap to her habitrail had fallen off and she must have gone wandering and not found her way back to my son's room .
I searched the rooms while my DD had a brainwave and searched the pipes .
We found Flower in the sewer pipe where my washing machine empties .
I had to reach my entire arm in and she was bleeding about her feet . The inside of the pipe is rough concrete so she must have scraped her feet on the way down. Theres no telling how long she had been swimmming before we found her .
I know we arent supposed to bathe hamsters but she was soaked in this wet stinking goo . I used some baby shampoo on her and rinsed her under the tap .
Thereafter I dried her and cleaned her feet with chlorohexidine .
The next week will tell if she comes down with pneumonia from her enforced swim .
25th July 2004
Flower seems to have recovered from her near drowning . I was in hospital soon after her near drowning so passed her to my sister so that SHE would have someone to watch over her .
So far so good . Shes back to her normal routine although for the first couple of days she was quiet ... probably from exhaustion .
Mar 23 2005 :
I cant believe she has beenw ith us a year plus now . Flower is middle aged now .
APril 2005 :
Flower should have been named Houdini . its not that she wants ot run away but she likes to explore but cant find her way back . Why am I so sure of this ? Its because there have been times her cage is left open but she doesnt want to come out . She just sits there going about her business
___
12th sept
My heart is aching as I announce my beloved 2YO Flower’s passing .She was euthanised this afternoon at a 240pm vet appointment
Flower came to us almost two years ago . Her date of birth is uncertain as she came from the pet shop not a private breeder . I brought her home on the 24th of Oct 2003 . At that time she was about three weeks old .I remember that day clearly . She was an impulse buy as I had been wanting a Syrian for ages . A tiny cream coloured pup who baffled me because she constantly had the wet look. It was only later on that I realised it was because she carried the Satin gene
I had been keeping dwarfs for awhile and as she grew I was amazed at her size . I had forgotten how big adult syrians were . She eventually grew to trust me and the day she didn’t object as I picked her up I knew I had won her over .
Her Poo producing habits were legendary . Up to 50 pieces on a super productive day sometimes ending up on my floor as she slotted them through the holes of her whirl a wheel one by one .Or they would lie in a neat pile under her safari wheel
Of late I noticed she had been sleeping more than normal and I put it down to old age .
yesterday night I noticed a scab on her tail and worried a little because my own medical bills recently had been high ( 6 or so times to the GP and once to the specialist since July ) and I didn’t have much to spare . This morning I found her toilet paper bedding stained with blood . It was alarming . I turned her over and realised her behind was crusted with dried blood and it was coming from her anus
My immediate thoughts were that this was most likely cancer not an infection because my sister’s late hamster Sugar, her sibling was euthanised recently for the same suspect condition .
The vet dived into Sugar’s records and pondered over it .
We had a long talk . I said I had debated long and hard that morning and I was prepared for her to go . I didn’t want her to suffer . He said that not all bleeding from behinds was cancer . Sometimes it could be an infection along the GI tract , however , given the strong genetic link and because the things that had hit Sugar and were also appearing in Flower ( including the skin problems ) , cancer was likely . The decision was made to have her put to sleep .
I asked for her to be gassed before the needle was given for the jab. My heart is breaking . Its raining now . Kind of feels like the heavens are crying for Flower
her spot looks so awfully empty . I didnt realise how used I was to having her peep out at me in the evenings
mei
click on the picture above to get to The page on my current lovelies : baby and elf