A Final Hamster Report

It’s been a rough few days at the Bruff house. Our beloved hamster Penny passed away late last week.

Penny

Penny was with us for just over a year, having come home with us from the pet store in late 2012. The girls had been begging me to get a dog, but I wasn’t sure I was up for that level of pet commitment, so I negotiated them down to a hamster. We named our new pet Penny for two reasons: (1) She was pretty much the same color as a penny and (2) Penny was the name of the little girl in the movie Bolt and the girls insisted that our hamster looked just like the hamster from that movie. Why didn’t we name our hamster Rhino, after the hamster in Bolt? Because he was a boy and our hamster was a girl. This all makes sense under kid logic.

Since the girls spent about 60% of the year at their mom’s house, that left Penny and me with a lot of quality time. I quickly grew attached to her, in spite of all the noise she made at night. She was certainly adorable, and I liked coming home to something more than a houseplant. She never seemed particularly glad to see me (as a dog might), but she only nipped me once, so I think she liked me well enough. The house is awfully quiet without her.

The girls, as you might expect, took her passing hard. Hannah cried and cried, saying over and over again how much she loved Penny and how she wanted to see her just one more time. She’s such a tenderhearted girl. Lily didn’t react much, but that is her way. She was particularly irritable this weekend, I think because she was upset inside about losing Penny. We buried Penny in the backyard on Sunday with a short ceremony, thanking God for the joy that Penny brought to our lives and for the chance to take care of her.

I don’t believe I ever blogged about Penny, but I certainly tweeted about her. Penny made a habit of escaping her cage–usually because I left it open–and wandering around the house. Since these escapes were what I usually tweeted about, I had a little fun pretending she was a prisoner and I was her warden. I tagged these tweets with the hashtag #HamsterReport. In honor of Penny and her passing, I’m sharing all my #HamsterReport tweets here on the blog.

Penny did indeed bring much joy to our house. We’ll miss her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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