in loving memory

Hammie passed away today, at the ripe old age of 3 years. He was the most gentle syrian hamster I have ever had the pleasure of knowing; in all his years he has bitten me only once, and that was when i separated him from his brother during a fight. He was a gentlemen in all his ways; even when you offered him his favourite food -sunflower seeds- he would gently take it from your hand so that he didn’t accidentally bite you. You could pry his mouth open to check his teeth, flip him over on his back, cuddle him because he was just too cute -and the most he would do was squeeze his eyes shut and wneek in exasperation.

I remember the times when we would let him run around the room; he would always find a cozy corner to hide in -in the cupboard, or between the bed and the pillar, giving us heart attacks trying to look for him. Or the sleepy look he would give us when we found him (hours later) peacefully sleeping, wedged between the bookshelf and the guitar case… almost like he was saying, “Where on EARTH have you been? I fell asleep waiting for you to find me!”

I remember how he never complained nor turned cranky during the times when we didn’t change his bedding as often as we should have sometimes, or forgot to feed him once or twice, or when he woke up because we stroked him in the daytime. He took everything in his stride, and endured all things with never-ending patience.

I remember how he loved his sock above all things. How he would “initiate” each new sock we gave him when his old one grew too ragged -by chewing it up, wrestling with it and throwing it all over the place to make it as fluffy and as pliable as his old one. At first he just slept on it, curled up in a ball; later he took to sleeping inside the sock -the first few times he did it we all got heart attacks because we thought he went missing again.

I remember the times when he would terrorize Jacky, Jie’s 3 year old Maltese. The first time they met, Jacky took one sniff at him, and fled across the room. That set the tone for the rest of their encounters; the closest Hammie ever got to making peace with Jacky was when we put him on Jacky’s snow-white fur and let him nestle in there for a while… and all that while, Jacky just looked miserable.

Oh, how i miss him already.

Here’s in loving memory of Hammie; dearly loved, sorely missed, but never forgotten.