Hammy, Part One

Our August started on a pretty sad note. Dayna was getting ready for the County Fair and was SO incredibly excited to get to show her hamster as part of 4-H Clover Kids. The show was on Saturday. Friday started pretty normal. Hammy was out and playing, sniffing around and being his adorably cute hamster self. I asked Dayna to put him away when she was done playing, and I'm not quite sure what happened after that.

Sometime in the afternoon, we noticed Hammy wasn't really moving. I reached in the cage and pet him. He startled a little bit and laid back down. I figured he was nocturnal and we just needed to let him sleep. But a few hours later, he wasn't waking up and playing. I picked him up, and he was limp and wheezing. Poor thing.

Dayna and I rushed him into Omaha to the pet store to see a veterinarian. (Yes...I actually took the wee rodent to a vet.) Hammy had some masses in his abdomen. They could have been tumors, or they could have been some sort of injury. My gut tells me it was the latter, because he went downhill so fast. But...we'll never really know. After some warm fluids, a painkiller and antibiotic were given, we were sent home. The vet wanted to see Hammy in 3 days for a checkup. In the meantime, we were just supposed to let Hammy rest.

So we brought him home...warm, comfy and breathing normally. He was even lifting his head and looking around.

And two hours later, he simply stopped breathing.

It was a miserable night. Went ahead and woke Dayna up to tell her the bad news. We figured if she woke up on her own in the middle of the night and discovered him, it would be even worse.

Oh, the tears. The hugs. The loss of words for the sweet hamster that she loved so much. It had been 3 months and 1 day since he joined our family. Way too short of a time.

We knew when we got a hamster he wouldn't last for years and years...but this was just so much more than the tender heart of Dayna could process on her own. And with much prayer for wisdom, we did our best to help her through it.