Noillyprat--Shaken, Not Stirred

And Make it a Dirty One...

Sunday, March 18, 2007

The Hamstercides

Tootsie is the hamster that I got for Robb on his 9th birthday. She was very big for a hamster, and very personable. We always got along well, and I feel like she really liked me, as much as hamsters can be said to like a person.

Of course all three of my cats have always been fascinated with her, but surprisingly, a little scared of her as well. When I took her out of her cage and let her roam around the floor, they would run away from her. On one memorable occasion, I put her in her little plastic ball to run around, and she started chasing one of my cats. He was eating at his dish, and she took aim, barrelled across the room and crashed into him. After he calmed down and started eating again, she made a big circle around the room, came into place, and once again took aim and made a beeline for him much to my amusement and his dismay.

Another night, while sitting and watching a movie, a movement in the corner of my eye caught my attention. There was Tootsie, drinking out of the cats' water bowl. She had apparently chewed a hole in the screen at the top of her cage, pulled herself up and out, tumbled down from the top of the cage which was on top of a dresser, and took herself out for a drink.

Sadly, Tootsie hasn't been doing so well lately. I have known she was getting old and not looking so well, but today she looked like total crap, and finally I saw what I had been afraid of: she had wet tail. Wet tail is the kiss of death in Hamsterland, and when you throw in that she was almost already 3 years old, well, you know this hamster is not meant for this earth any longer.

We watched her for a while, she was really struggling. She has little stairs she has to climb up to get her food and water, and she could barely make it. When she tried to go back down, she sort of just let go and tumbled down to the bottom.

I knew what I had to do, and I talked to Robbie about it and he agreed. But UGH, how to do it? All I could think of was drowning her, but... oh man that would have been awful. My roommate suggested we gas her. He's got all sorts of stuff for his metalwork and welding whatnots, so I put her in a big jar, taped off the top and then he ran some argon into it (I checked, argon is actually a common and preffered method for this sort of thing).

It didn't take long at all, and after she was dead I found a little shoebox for her, wrapped her up in a towell and Robbie and I dug a hole for her in the backyard. He had a mini breakdown (during which he told me he was going to keep living with me forever so he could make sure I wouldn't die, holy shit, not a dry eye in the house at that one), but we got it done, and now he seems to have already forgotten.

I haven't though, I loved my little Tootsie. Sad me :(

1 Comments:

At 9:01 PM, Blogger Chimpotle said...

Life According to Jim just had an episode about saving a hamster. I'm going to go kill myself for having that show on the hotel TV.

 

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