R.I.P. Wilbur

Sadly we are down one more animal. Lindsay's dwarf hamster Wilbur, has bitten the dust. He was actually my favourite of the hamsters. I quite thought he had personality, but then maybe I'm not the best judge of character.

Being a dwarf hamster he had a saucer type exercise device, instead of the regular wheel which the bigger hamsters use. This contraption drove us crazy with the squeaking (don't forget hamsters are nocturnal) so we solved the problem by applying olive oil. Perhaps we applied too much because as soon as Wilbur picked up speed - Bazinga! He'd fly right off. This didn't daunt him, and back he'd go in the saucer, whip around a few times and then sail across the cage again at warp speed. I rather think he enjoyed being the world's first flying hamster, and it was as funny as hell to watch. By the way, it wasn't his Mach 10 flights that killed him, he actually died of old age. Just wanted to set the record straight.

Fortunately Wilbur's funeral was handled with a little more decorum than the previous debacle. Although it is a sad state of affairs when you have to set out the ground rules beforehand. Namely, do not stomp on the hamster coffin to flatten it, do not play catch with the hamster coffin and under no circumstances offer up the corpse to the dog because having him eat it, is easier than burying it. This would be understandable perhaps if I were giving these instructions to my ten year old son, but no, these admonitions were directed at my husband. Even after that, I still caught him whispering promises to the dog.

Meanwhile Grady came home from school on his first day, elated because his class has two pets, a hamster & a guinea pig. Guess who is on guinea pig patrol for the first week and gets to bring it home for the weekend ?  Wahoo ! I think his teacher hates me. She is actually very nice, and I used to quite like her, right up until the time she palmed off the African Dwarf Frogs on Grady, and he wasn't even in her class at the time. She had better not be getting any bright ideas this time around. I know this will get back to her, so I should just warn you Ms Z., that the last guinea pig we looked after for someone, is pushing up daisies alongside the dearly departed hamsters - just sayin'. He hasn't even brought it home yet, but already Grady's latest mission is to persuade his father to let him get a guinea pig. I don't need a crystal ball to know how that conversation is going to go, unless of course we need to replace the class pet .....

Keeping my fingers crossed. Have a great weekend everyone, and I'll be back on Monday - unless of course I'm at the pet store ...