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2:00 - 4:00 this morning.

I was awake…we thought Tori’s hamster was dying last night (shaking constantly, not opening its eyes, ears down, red nose, couldn’t walk, back leg was all screwy...) and she was pretty hysterical. We thought maybe he fell (he’s been climbing up his water bottle and then hanging upside down on the lid). I guess injured hamsters don’t drink (probably because they know they’re going to die and want to speed up the process). ANYWAY, I gave it a concoction of sugar/salt water (recommended on hamsterhelp.com or some random site), cleaned its cage and gave him a small piece of bread with olive oil. These items above were done simply to calm my screaming banshee of a daughter down. I didn’t think they’d help at all and was sure that I’d wake up this morning to more banshee and a dead rodent. Thus, I kept thinking about how I’d calm her down, if I’d immediately have to replace said rodent, if I’d have to buy her a puppy since it’s the first Christmas that we’re divorced AND she has a dead hamster, if I should just take Steve back as a distraction from dying rodents….blah blah.

At 6:30 this morning I hear “MOM!” and I’m sure Scratch is dead. Nope. He’s running around like, well, a hamster. My daughter thinks I’m a rock star and some sort of hamster saving savant.

Being a mom is not easy.

Comments

Jenn said…
Oh laugh. It reminds me of the year we got Lexi a whole aquarium of fish for her birthday. She picked out this big, beautiful blue gromie (sp?) and it died 2 weeks later. We flushed him while she cried big crocodile tears and for months she talked about his death, often tearing up in memory of her favorite fish.

It's not easy, but so worth it :)
10:54 AM
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