the hamster
When my youngest daughter was about five years old, she asked if she could have a hamster. Not an unusual request for a child of this age, and since I'm tired of flushing the dead goldfish identical in the toilet, I was pleased to welcome its call for a kind of a little more robust 'pets. We went to the pet shop and chose a chocolate brown ball of fur that cost about ten dollars. It was much more than I had paid for the goldfish, but pound for pound the hamster was certainly cheaper and I realized it was much more likely to make it through the week so I would not need buy another too soon. She called the Hamster "Hamster".
But the hamster itself was only the beginning of the costs associated with this exercise. Hamsters need cages at two levels with tiny scales leading to the upper floor, the more they need water dispensers gravity and small plastic tubes to run through, and they need a nice little house to sleep - not to mention the "hamster wheel" on the side of the cage seems to be mandatory for the little blighters. Why Hamsters need wheels to run round? Other pet manages perfectly well without them. You do not see cats running around in them, and can you imagine how annoying it would be if there were such a thing as a dog wheel? The squeaky hamster wheel is pretty boring, but imagine the noise if you had a Great Dane loping all day in a giant wheel bolted to your wall. In fact, dogs are too stupid -. They would probably get the wheel up to a good speed and then suddenly stop for a discharge with disastrous consequences for the living room decor
Early morning, about six months later, my little princess arrived in current in my room crying and shouting that Hamster hanged himself during the night. Half asleep, I started thinking back trying to remember all the signs that I would have noticed, but then I realized the whole situation involves five years and a fluff ball without brain, so I climbed out of bed looking as concerned as I could and pretend to rush as she pulled me urgently by hand in the direction of his bedroom. In fact, it was kind of right. Somehow the hamster had managed to get his little ladder and grab his leg between the wire bars - it was now hanging upside down by his foot three inches above the floor and frantically thrashing around trying to remedy the situation. His leg was horribly broken. My daughter begged me to save him.
I arrived in the cage to catch the hamster squealing frantically and take the weight of his mutilated arm, but the little b ***** d bit me. I quickly removed my shirt and wrapped it around my hand for protection, then lifted the victim up, released her leg and pulled him out of the cage. I could not let it go because I knew it would try to run and cause more pain and damage, so I kept it wrapped in a T-shirt to steady it. I knew it was not going to, but I could not say five years, so I told him to detach the bottle of water cage and come with me. We went to my medicine cabinet and took a few aspirin tablets, crumbled into the water and let the hamster drink. I tell my daughter to leave the hamster with me while she was in school and I use the drug to make it better before she got home that night. She went to the school concerned but happy.
A quick trip to the pet shop later that day and my daughter was able to go home to a "fully recovered Hamster", although it declined slightly, but has not noticed. What happened to the original hamster? He sleeps with the fishes.