Hamster Update: Enterprise Edition

Such a dearth of public peeping. Let's amend.

Henry - small, balding, but still the patriarch. Likes it when I visit his children who live away then let him smell the hand. It's like a many-forwarded email. Henry gets underrated, but he's really the source of the good-natured kindness in many of his children (Bode, Helix, Milkdrop, Almond...).

Almond - still heavy. Gets into the hand, and the hand hits bedding. As a chef, he made up the coolest thing the other day. I'd gone to see Air Supply and had to have an ice cream soda afterward. I don't what kind of crazy ice cream soda has seltzer water (ok), milk (ok), chocolate ice cream (ok), and then root beer to top it off (what?). Not that there's anything wrong with a root beer float, but.

The ice cream was just a scoop, not blended, so the liquid portion was consumed quickly. I brought home the ice cream portion and, at Almond's wise suggestion, poured Squirt over it. Delicious! Grapefruit soda with essence of chocolate ice cream (since it was still a scoop at the bottom of the cup) - what shall we call it? How about a "Russell Cream"? Or a "Russell Soda." (If you know anything about Air Supply, you get that.)

Toss - No one ever hears much about Toss, even though this photo is one of the most popular in the Flickr Hamily Album. Toss runs. Sometimes he runs away ("no seeds? bye!"), and sometimes he runs into things (mostly his dad), but mostly he runs in the wheel. I wish I knew him better, but it's hard maintaining the title of best runner, especially at his age, with Patricia and Holly so young and keen. Kudos to you, Toss.

Feta - isn't drinking from the ducky bottle. He says it's a souvenir bottle and just for show. Meanwhile, I raised his log out of the hidden seed cave-in, and now I can watch him putter away in there like it's his toolshed of millet hammers and sunflower wrenches.

Sparrow (Dart) - I have accepted that Sparra is going to bite me every day for the rest of my life. "Pick me up!" (nip) "Hold me!" (nip) "Pet my ears!" (nip) She's demanding and bites to say hello or ask after your day or let you know she's out of Milkbones or to be picked up or to be put down or to have her back scratched, but she's still our Dart.

Elizabeth Joy - EJoy has been getting into the hand more and more lately. She's supposed to be the shy one (except when worrying Sparrow, or before her, Maudine, or before her, Janet), but lately she can't get enough seeds (hoover, hoover, hoover) or enough proximity to the hand. I'm not saying she always wants in the hand, but she likes the hand near. When it's gone, she looks for it. When it's there, she stands near it. When she decides to get in it, she likes to go places.

Sparrow and Elizabeth Joy still sleep in an inseparable cuddle during all non-waking moments.

Milkdrop - is funny. Also rather mauled, but mostly recovered. Coal doesn't live there anymore.

Coal - has been living single for about a month now. She's still a little coal lump, wheezing hard when she gets over-excited. She runs hard in the Crittertrail X wheel that I rigged up to not do laps around the track; hammies seem to prefer this. Then she takes flying leaps from the top of the slide. I know she's a little lonely, but she shouldn't have bitten her sister like that.

Bode - hasn't let on whether she misses Coal. She has let me know that she loooooves soft pretzels. Twists and jumps for them. She and Milkdrop are in the living room these days, and I like to lie on the sofa and watch Bode sprint out of the nest now and again to eat, drink, or pee, then run right back into their layers of toilet paper luxury.

Owl - is also on his own, for being a bully. Does he like it? Yes, I think he's more relaxed. He needs more playtime, but we're on opposite schedules. He's still the softest.

Helix - is adopting Hammond as his near-brother. He runs. He eats. He still loves to jump into the hand and be smooched and petted. I wish we had a small pile of macHelices meeping around.

Hammond - has rediscovered the sand bath. Being with Helix makes him feel young. With Owl's dominating presence gone, Hammond is back in the wheel and spending less time pouching the seed dish. I even think he's drinking less. He's also looking a bit opal-y, just as Helix is looking kind of normal-y. I know people sometimes look like their pets - do pets ever look like their fellow pets?

Janet - is still Super Janet, getting things done. For someone who supposedly has problems walking, she sure seems to move a lot of bedding, furniture, and tubes - every day. Plus climbs to the loft. Janet, a warm albeit strict hamster, is like one of those people in a wheelchair who passes you when you're climbing a mountain.

Peter - our Peter has not taken the taxi much of late, being so enamored of sleeping in tubes and not going up the slide at all. He's getting shaggier and is still big, but these days he always has his curious face on, and you can bother him when he's eating, which is a big step. In fact, he's often more interested in an arm scurry than stuffing his cheeks. The second wheel with the expansion pack of tunnels and little house were just the ticket for making Peter feel like he could settle in and stop worrying about being adopted.

Holly - is finally socialized. He was never mean; he just didn't interact much or come out for seeds. He seemed to shrug often and worry seldom. Now he looks for me, and meals are a nice time for us to bond. He's still crazy about lying on his back and grooming, though. That's his thing - the indelicate sprawl.

Patricia - is so excited about El Dia de los Hammies 2006. It falls late this year, in order to avoid competition with Memorial Day and other calendar events. Patricia likes to sleep in her double purple roundabouts and listen for footsteps. She's like that butler in Mr. Deeds. In fact, I'm sure she's in that movie. Next time, look carefully during the "Major Tom" sequence. With the acquisition of Starry Night Pro and the coming break, Patricia is hoping that there will be a robust summer program for the junior hamsternauts. She knows the old space stations are still out of orbit, but something like junior hamsternauts could really mold a still-young zipping machine like herself.

That, or having Helix's gummies. Alas, I'm not insane (in the right ways) to brook that thought for too long. (Ah, but to have friendly, fast, mottled opals! And all but H&P are getting old... No. No, no...)

P. S. The fish seem fine. Ursula still makes a great, un-ladylike, bubble-nest. Mr Jonathan still upsets me by sleeping a little too hard a little too near the surface.

Comments

[Laura]

Hey Shari!!
Toss is so cute. Why does he run away though??? i only have one hamster. i also have a friend called shari, thats why i came to this site. Anyone called Shari has to be cool.

[Shari]

Haha - thanks. Toss doesn't so much run away as run to - as in always running to the wheel unless he has a compelling reason to stay. (Sadly, being rubbed with my thumb is less exciting than galloping across whatever imaginary prairie or steppes he visualizes as he speeds along...)

Yes, all Sharis are cool, but mostly because we choose the coolest people (and hamsters) to be our friends. ;)

[Shari!]

Hey! Wow I never met anyone else called Shari before! Cool site. Theres some Unusual intersting stuff here. Well good talking.
By the way im lauras friend shari!And you are so right. we choose the best people to be our friends and thats why i'm friends with laura! shes great! she told me about the site.
Well i'm off
catch ya later