A few weeks ago me and my nana were nattering away on the phone and she mentioned in passing that she was thinking of getting herself a hamster. I have carried a view from childhood that they are nippy little things, not easily tamed. I have had two as an adult "Alice" the devil in hamster form. Put your hand in her cage when she was awake, even offering food and you would remove your hand with a hamster dangling off your finger, no matter how hard I tried it was impossible to tame that hamster.
There is one amusing story related to Alice though, I took her on as a pet while living in the university accommodation block which was overseen by a woman known to us all as "Twiggy". We never called her that to her face but she of was know of that title behind her back and she shared a similar personality to Alice, without the biting, I don't recall ever seeing that woman smile. One thing that was an absolute no-no was pets, though several hamsters did reside in that block along side students.
Anyway, Twiggy appeared one day wanting to do an inspection. On hearing a knock at the door I shoved Alice's cage under the bed, in doing so I woke Alice up. While "Twiggy" was busy doing her inspection all I could hear from under the bed was the "squeak, squeak, squeak" of Alice whizzing round her wheel. Fortunately, it would seem "Twiggy" as well as being devoid of personality was also devoid of hearing as she never appeared to pick up on the strange squeaking coming from under my bed.
Then later on came "Sammy the hammy" he held the distinction of being the only hamster never to bite me. He was one class hamster. After that I became hamster less and gave no further consideration to ever having a hamster darken my door again.
Going back to my nana wanting to acquire a hamster as a pet, I offered to purchase a hamster on her behalf and then bring it down to her. I do not believe in homing from pet shop or breeders so after a few enquiries I discovered that there is a small animal rescue 20 miles from me a few emails later and a hammy was reserved for my nana. So off I went one Thursday night in my trusty chariot to view the said hamster and make a final decision. She was adorable and I deemed her suitable as a new companion for my nana and thus agreed to adopt her for my nana.
The wonderful person J that ran the rescue then introduced me to the other inmates and though they were each gorgeous I resolved that no, I was not offering any off them a home. There were gerbils rescued from their owner by the RSPCA as they were been kept in unsuitable conditions and being neglected. There was pets brought in as their owners could no longer offer them a home and then there were two hamsters who were brought in by the police having been found dumped in the street. They were male and female and in a tiny cage, not good and I got quite annoyed at this stage that someone could do something like this to an animal so tiny and defenseless.
Then she introduced to me to a tiny underweight ball of fluff who, has been found at the same time as the two hamsters mentioned above in a tiny cage and on his own this time, he was scrawny and underweight but incredibly friendly and tame for all he had been through and my heart melted and my resolve weakened and that was it animal osmosis toke place in my house once more. He's been living with me a week and he's and amazing chap, hopefully what J said to me as we left "being dumped may be the best thing that happened to him" will prove true as he settles in his new home with a good size cage, lots of toys and lovely grub. I can see an improvement in the little mans condition already. His name, Pippin.
Here he is
This of course led to some anxieties on Sparkies part as he clearly thought he was been shoved to one side and replaced, this is certainly not the case and he need a lot of reassurance before he settled down and stopped yelling and demanding my attention at every opportunity bless him!
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