Flower was tiny (hence the "dwarf" title) and was missing one ear. She was white with a little pale gray stripe down her tiny back. She was the sweetest little thing and loved to play in her cage and on her wheel. My girls were kept awake many a night by Flower's exercise regimen. She loved to climb up the inside of the cage and squeak at anyone who would listen, including Timmy the Wonder Cat.
She and Timmy had a funny relationship. Timmy would sit beside her cage for hours on end just watching Flower. Flower would climb up on the cage and squeak and Timmy would sniff her and bat her back down into the cage. One morning, after hearing strange squeaky noises emanating from the girls' room, I turned on the light to discover Timmy chasing an escaped Flower around the bedroom floor, but not trying to claw her or actually catch her.
Maya and Penelope took Flower to daycare several times in a little hamster travel carrier. The other kids at daycare loved having her there. She was friendly and gentle and didn't scare easily.
Two weeks ago, our little Flower dug into and curled up under her bed of fluff and passed away in her sleep. When I noticed that she hadn't hidden her food and hadn't been heard running on her wheel for a couple days, I mentioned to Corbin that I thought she may have died. He checked on her and broke the news to me.
Corbin, the girls and I made Flower a little casket lined with her favorite... cotton balls. Corbin dug a small grave in the front flower bed and Penelope helped cover her casket with dirt. We used a nice, smooth, rather large rock to mark her grave, and Penelope and Maya told her "goodbye".
After the funeral, Penelope wrote the following:
You wer sach a grate hamster
I miss you so mach
Love, Penelope
I love you
By, Flower
So sweet!
I'm ashamed to say that this is the only photo I could find of Flower. One of my girls took it. She was so adorable, and the girls had her out of the cage so many times, I don't know why I didn't take pictures of her.
1 comment:
Well, you did better with hamsters than we did.
We bought Tommy one when he was about 4yrs old. It escaped after about two weeks, if even that.
Several months later when our downstairs neighbors were moving they said they had found a huge mouse in their closet. It was an old house. We'd been there for 4 or more years. I had never seen a mouse. We decided it must of been the hamster.
Post a Comment