A cry of“ I PROMISE I will look after it please Mum” occurred so often that our long suffering mother finally decided to let us have one small pet each.
My sister, being the eldest, was allowed to choose what she wanted while the rest of us had to wait our turn. She chose rats. I really don’t like rats and neither did anyone else in the household. They were not only smelly but very unfriendly. Mother put her foot down and insisted they were moved to the outhouse, which they were – swiftly.
I was next in line to get a small furry pet. I tried and succeeded in convincing mother that mice were really clean and very sweet. As long as they didn’t live in the house that was alright by her. I don’t think she envisaged my father throwing himself into making a little toy town for them, but I was truly thrilled as I watched my pets running over bridges, houses and cars. It was the work of a genius. One slight problem was that my pets multiplied and multiplied until even I had to admit that I had too many.
Our local zoo had a pets corner and there was a very splendid mouse house which I would visit whenever we went. So I asked if they would like some more mice and they immediately said yes. My sister and I set off clutching a shoe box each full of mice and took the bus to the zoo. We went to the upper deck and all was well until we came to alight. Tragically my sister tripped down the stairs, the top of the box came off and mice flew everywhere. Mayhem ensued with ladies shrieking and standing on their seats as we rounded them up. To say the conductor was not amused is an understatement.
Of course now I realise that they probably fed the mice to the snakes who are always ready for a tasty rodent. It was a blessing that I never cottoned on! Guinea pigs and rabbits soon joined the menagerie and as long as my parents didn’t know how many we had all was fine.
Fast forward to when my daughter started pestering me for a pet. Laura kept insisting that she wanted a small animal and swore she would feed it, clean out the cage etc.etc. A hamster fitted the bill nicely. When her Godmother asked what Laura wanted for Christmas she told her about the rodent and Pamela said she would get one for her.
Quite why my friend decided to go to Harrods to buy one I still don’t know. She had to look after it for a couple of days until Christmas Eve so I told her to just give it food and water. On the second day the animal had not stirred from its little bed of hay so she hot footed back to Harrods and told them that it had died. The chap in charge gave the animal a small poke and it sat bolt upright, it had only been sleeping!
Nobody was more relieved than her when she handed the present over. Laura was thrilled and needless to say after the initial excitement had worn off she left it to muggings here to do all the tasks necessary to keep the hamster alive and well.
Sadly Spot went to hamster heaven after six months and once more Laura nagged and nagged until she had another one. This one, called Honey was a real sweetie. Unfortunately we went away for the weekend and when we got back Laura had run up to her bedroom to see Honey and a piercing shriek rent the air. So fearing the worst I ran up to see what had happened.
The poor thing had died with one little paw stretched out to the food bowl which was full I hasten to add. It was really sad to see her like that so I took Laura downstairs to comfort her and she cried so much that she had a nose bleed all over my cream jumper. I swore then and there that she couldn’t have another one. However I got so bored with her pleas I am afraid that I gave in and off we went to the pet shop again.
The chap there suggested that we bought some Russian hamsters as they happily lived in pairs. What he failed to mention was that he had just sold me two Houdinis. After a few weeks the little blighters had escaped between the bars of the cage and despite searching all over the house we couldn’t find a sign of them, but let me just say that the cat was looking very smug!
Undaunted we bought another two. The chap showed us a state of the art cage and swore on his life that they really could not escape from it. And indeed it seemed they couldn’t. Time passed with the little things running around safely behind bars. Or so I thought because when my daughter came home after school and went to her room she looked into the cage and it was empty – again.
So the hamster search started, I found one of them who was very dead and shortly afterwards the second one.
I told Laura then and there that I was not prepared to get her any more and she didn’t seem too upset. So I ran upstairs with a black bin liner and put the cage and all the other bits inside it. I was so happy to finally get rid of them that I danced around the bedroom singing “Yes, yes the hamster’s dead, the hamster’s dead, the hamsters dead” at the top of my voice.
There were builders working on the house opposite and when I went to put the bin bag into the dustbin they all said “ Here missus did you know your hamster is dead?” followed by a rousing chorus of my hamster song!
I felt very silly but looking at their beaming faces really cheered me up so I went back into my house now thankfully and absolutely hamster free!
Jane Buckle
