Remember 'Hammy'?

Those who read here regularly will remember 'Hammy' perhaps?

Well as of yesterday she is no longer, she is deceased, gone to the great hamster cage in the sky :(

I appreciate this isn't on the scale of some of my recent losses but it makes me a little sad nonetheless, despite the fact that she didn't live with me any longer.

When life necessitated that I move to my parents eighteen months ago I couldn't keep her so my brother took her, but she had an eventful little life and after she made a number of escape attempts it was decided she would go to one of his friends. She had narrowly missed a few over enthusiastic 'investigations' by his dog and it was only going to be a matter of time....

The said friend is an animal nut and really wanted her as opposed to just taking her out of kindness so, off she went about a year ago to join the menagerie already resident at her new home.

All was well, she was well cared for, I saw her occasionally and she had as much food and attention as any hamster could wish for.

She died of old age in her sleep but she was a happy little hamster who had more adventures than many.

Hammy got mail!

It really is the small things in life, as they say, that bring some of the biggest smiles!

I woke this morning (unusually late for me) to find a parcel on the doormat which had winged it's merry way from 'up north' courtesy of Daffy, she of mad texts, emails and blog posts, who has recently become a really good friend to me and who knowing I had been through something of a rough week one way and another, had packed up a parcel of treats for Hammy and a lovely, lovely card for me and sent it on it's way here to cheer me up! All that despite her own self feeling something less than 'chipper' of late!

How kind and nice is that??? It made my day, no, correction, my week, it was just such a lovely thing to do and my day was begun unusually smiley and cheerful as a result and Hammy for her part, is about to indulge in a feast of hamster gourmet happiness!


*Thankyou flower, you really made my week :o)

Hamsters and physics

Hammy, it would appear, hasn't quite grasped the principles of basic physics yet!

(Clickable)

Hamster!

I'm feeling pretty witless today, I think the last week finally caught up with me and what little mind I had remaining has imploded temporarily, leaving me staring blankly at anything I have attempted to do since I crawled out of my bed this morning!

It is thus that the best I can manage today is the offering of a small 'toy' for your amusement....



(click on the wheel/bottle etc.)

...well it amused me! ;o)

Fat face!

Sunday afternoon we took a quick trip to the Hamster treat store....somehow we managed to exit fifteen minutes later and almost £20 lighter, yes, £20 just on hamster necessities and the odd little nutritious snack!!

I am convinced that, like 'catnip' there must also be 'Hamster nip' out there, the manufacturers just don't tell us but the strangely most expensive of the fare, a wooden roll stuffed to the gunnels with a honey and carrot concoction, caused three hours of mayhem. She just would not leave it alone and instead, despite it being official hamster nighttime and the item being twice her size, she lugged it backwards and forwards, dragged it up and down, turned it over and back again and clawed, scratched and chewed at it manically until every last morsel was safely 'pouched' and removed to a safe food hiding place...all with a daft,dazed look on her fat face!

Three hours! Non stop! Pouch after pouch load...and what pouches, she looked at some stages completely and utterly deformed! Surely carrot and honey alone can't illicit such behaviour! I'm sure they must sneak into these things some highly addictive, cat-nip-like substance! ;o)

Don't be fooled!

Whilst I suspect that the acquisition of a hamster in your life is probably not top priority, the slightest possibility that it may be at some point in the future requires that I warn you of a route not to take! That route is one Fletch and I fell into spectacularly.....the marketing of the required hamster 'pied a terre', specifically the 'Habitrail Ovo', must have hamster home.

It might look pretty funky as hamster homes go, it might be fun for it's resident and it might include a silent wheel but what the marketing does not tell you is that to clean it (which is a twice weekly necessity) requires it to be dismantled into this monstrous heap of 71 parts, all requiring washing, drying and then re-assembling! Really, 71 cats would be less hassle!

Un surprisingly cleaning and reassembling duties are designated as 'woman's work' in gemmak's-ville but from time to time 'himself' considers extension options and opportunities for this residence, to include further rooms for superior hamster entertainment and the ultimate hamster lifestyle.

Ummmmm.....let me think about that one! ;o)

Hellish hamsters!

Since the advent of Hammy in my life one thing has become very apparent, contrary to popular belief these little creatures are not always easy, cute and fluffy they might be but cuddly they are not, or at least in some cases.

Any information will tell you they aren't always easy to handle, they have a penchant for grumpy-ness, are very fast, adept at making good their escape and maintaining their liberty and most significantly of all have a set of teeth from hell....which they are way too fond of utilising!

I had never had a hamster before, as a child I had guinea pigs and mice, both of which by comparison are a push over. When I was told that hamsters should be chosen with a view to being treated as fish i.e. for looking at not cuddling, I was sceptical....how can something so small be so difficult? The answer is simple, they are fast, very squirmy and bite like the devil when they chose too, as Lisa will testify having spent a half hour stopping the copiously bleeding when Hammy decided to greet her with teeth!

They are in many cases pretty hard to tame, despite months of doing all the stuff recommended and with a degree of patience that is unusual for me, Hammy still will not tolerate being picked up, though we have progressed to being allowed a small stroke once in a while!

It wasn't long into my hamster 'parenting' experience that I began to say that I found it strange that these little animals are so often owned by small children, their behaviour just doesn't seem to be conducive, even as an adult I am far more wary of the lightening speed of the biting end than I am of any cat or dog!.....and now my thoughts seem to be echoed in this article in the Guardian, not only do they have the teeth from hell but they are also considered unsuitable for children from a health point of view!

Ok, so like many of these articles it is probably a little OTT, let's face it, if we listened to all the health advice that is bandied around in the press we would do nothing but it is interesting to me to read that the apparently cute little hamster is 'officially' not quite as cute as it would have us believe.

All that said, Hammy is lovely if treated with a reasonably high degree of respect, she follows me around the flat, she is very amusing, she will always come to greet me and she does look very cute....she is however never, I suspect, ever going to be a cuddly creature.

Hamster in hiding!

Yesterday was our six monthly 'inspection'. By that I mean the day the letting agents who manage this flat come snooping around to check that we aren't wrecking the place, housing forty seven illegal immigrants or using it as a bordello.

It's always a pain, in the main of our own making I have to admit, because we smoke and the lease forbids such heinous activity, so inspection day always requires much rushing around with all the doors and windows open and cans of sweetly smelling air fresheners pressed into heavy service.

This time though there was one extra problem...Hammy! We aren't allowed pets either and whilst maybe we would get away with a hamster I wasn't going to test the theory, so the crack of dawn yesterday saw me racing around hatching a cunning plan to make her disappear temporarily!

This was no mean feat, given that her 'house' begins to resemble NASA and wouldn't fit in it's entirety in the designated hiding place, which from very limited options was the wardrobe! The whole kit and caboodle just wasn't going to fit and so I had to dismantle the whole issue and re-design a more compact pied a terre....all with one very stubborn and grumpy hamster still 'in situ'.


Eventually the task was complete, Hammy was installed in the bottom of the wardrobe and the multitude of spare parts were hidden away in cupboards...we were ready for inspection.

Oh no we weren't!

The inside of the wardrobe of course is dark, hamsters are nocturnal, her body clock was almost instantly thrown into confusion and she just wouldn't go to sleep, instead choosing to race around her (supposedly silent) wheel making a god-awful racket and scratching like merry hell trying to burrow her way out! Much faffing and many treats later she settled down some but as I was about to go out to the dentist and leave her to the inspector alone, should he arrive in my absence, she started up again!! Arghhhh.

I could think of no other option than to pretend (waddya mean 'pretend') I was a half-wit and turn on the bedroom radio, loud, in the hope that it would drown out her noise making antics and Mr Inspector man would assume I had left in a hurry and forgotten to turn it off!

In the event of course he didn't arrive until long after I had returned, so instead I steered him in and out of the bedroom poste haste and hammy remained safely undiscovered...then of course came the re-building NASA process and this time around an even more seriously disgruntled little hamster, who was by now completely fed up with all the disturbance and has very sharp teeth!

What a performance!

Don't you just hate it....

....when you manage, with a stunning degree of excellence, with prove yourself wrong!

Last night I decided in my wisdom that in my efforts to give Hammy as much free space as possible to exercise, that not only would I allow her time in the hallway, that has been proven to have no hamster sized escape holes, but to expand her playground to include the kitchen.

I had checked it thoroughly for possible escape routes and had found only one, but having considered her increasing girth, upon further investigation I disregarded it as now way too small.

Fletch begged to differ and when I flounced out of the living room to the new and expanded play area with hammy in hand, it was to the sound of his voice ringing in my ears saying 'you'll be sorry'.

Ppfftt...does he think I'm stupid I thought as I gleefully placed one small critter on the floor.

You know of course what happened next don't you?!

Within seconds she had found the little hole under the cooker that I had deemed too small...It would appear I had seriously underestimated her ability to squish herself into a tiny place by 'playing flat'!!

Bugger! In an instant all I could see of her was her rear end, I made a grab for her....and then all I could see was one back foot! Oh no! Disaster!

This was not a time for pride! In a something less than calm manner I shrieked to Fletch that I needed help, I had images of my little hamster lost forever in the labyrinth that is this 140 year old, 8 story building, worse still a local cat might be significantly intrigued by this new variation on a mouse.

Fletch duly 'attended' to find me scrabbling around on the floor trying to find a way to coax out said lost critter in something of a panic. He poked at the little foot while I panicked some more, extracted a treat from the bag nearby, held it near to her and in just a few seconds she was out. It seems I had also underestimated the power of hamster treats!

He didn't actually utter the words 'I told you so' but there was the definite hint of a smirk on his face as he left me to put madam (complete with attached post adventure cobweb) firmly back in her cage with my tail between my legs!

Free range!

Perhaps I will live to regret the fact that I kinda feel sorry for Hammy (why we gave her a name I don't know, it never gets used!) being shut in a cage 27/7...but thus far a little free range time seems to work well, providing of course I limit her geography to some degree!

Hamster power!

The tale of a hamster, a mobile phone and a turbine!

Perhaps Nutmeg can be of more use than I previously imagined! ;o)

My name is....

'NUTMEG'

Though my humans still persist in calling me 'Hamster'!

A horse hamster with no name

Since Tilly's sad departure and the emotional debacle that surrounded it I have been 'without animal'(unless you include Fletch!), this is not a good state of affairs but our current situation doesn't allow for a cat..... and even if it did I don't think I am quite ready yet for a different cat.

It was thus that yesterday a compromise was achieved and himself treated me to a hamster, complete with a des. res. any rodent would be proud of....albeit slightly er, garish in what was an understated room! ;o)


So....the problem? She doesn't have a name yet, there are a few suggestions but nothing yet seems quite 'the one'. Ideas please?

Right, I'm off now to try and work out how I get into this contraption!