In March of 2007 our family suffered a major loss. Our little Shih Tzu Mitzie went into kidney failure and passed away on Easter Sunday. I took her to the Animal Rescue League to be cremated because they do private cremations, not in groups like a lot of other places. When I went to pick up her remains, I was a total wreck. The poor man who was soldering her urn was dismayed by my incessant crying so he sent me next door to the shelter to ‘pet something fluffy’
until he was done.
So, off I go to the pet shelter next door. At first, I see the usual: lots of cats and a few large pooches. I then walk by a small glass fish tank. I looked in but didn’t see anything but critter fluff and some food. I asked the woman at the rescue what was in the tank and she said “Russian Dwarf Hamsters”. I asked to see them and saw two tiny baby dwarfs hiding in the fluff. One was ‘clicking’ at me and digging himself further into the fluff and one peeked out at me to see what this giant creature was that was looking in on him. So, of course, I pick the bigger of the two – the one who was curious to see me. I told the rescue worker that I wanted that one and I would take him home with me today after I picked up my dog’s remains. She said “I think that one is Floyd”. Adorable critter – cute name – I’d give him a try – especially after losing my beloved pup just days earlier.
The shelter was nice enough to give me a pink Habitrail to take him home in. Pink…ha ha…he’s Pink Floyd. Adorable. She warns me that these critters are not friendly and can deliver a nasty bite. I don’t care – he’s so sweet – I want him and now I’m not leaving without him. So I go back to the cemetery to pick up my dog, come back to the shelter next door to pick up Floyd, and I see a very elderly parakeet sitting in a cage. Now, I’m well aware that it is freezing inside the shelter and it is visible that this poor bird has seen better days and that most of them are behind her. I ask the shelter worker about the bird. She says “her name is Christmas and her owners couldn’t take care of her anymore”. So, having had parakeets as a kid, I of course say “I”ll take her too”. I sign the paperwork for Floyd and Christmas,
buckle everybody into the truck an go home wondering what my husband will say when he gets home from work.
I call my friend from the car and tell her that I have the dog back and two other new additions to the family. She happened to be driving through my town at the time and said she would stop over on her way home.
So she meets me at home and sees my two new babies. The bird is obviously not well and very old. Floyd, however, is only 4 months old and is still a tiny baby hammy. We both fell in love with him instantly. He came out to see us, put his hands on the door to his cage and begged to be picked up. I tried to pick him up but he hid. We did this a few more times before my husband arrived home (he gets out of work almost 2 hours later than I do). He sees two new cages on the coffee table and says “oh boy, who do we have here?”. He loved them both. he picked Floyd up with a TP tube and Floyd came out, sat on his chest and cuddled into him for a good 1/2 hour. From then on, he was our little Floydie. He always wanted to be picked up, held, and cuddled. Never in my life have I seen a hamster act this way, especially the dwarf variety which tends to be a bit ornery. we loved Floyd from the day I took him home from the shelter. My friend was so jealous at my superior find! I told her that his brother Hamlet was still there. She drove over the very next morning and took Hamlet home. Awesome – 2 rescued hammies in 2 days. Not bad.
Floyd always wanted to be a part of whatever we were doing. He followed us around the house in his ball, begged to be held if he heard one of our voices, and took food from us with his tiny hands. So cute! unimaginable that a so-called ‘rodent’ could be such a wonderful and loving pet. Each night he would sleep on either my husband or myself while we watched TV. Once he was comfortable, neither one of us wanted to move him, so we would simply hand him off to one another if we had to move for whatever reason. We didn’t always get everything done that we wanted to on our nights and weekends, but he was such a joy to cuddle with, and as he aged, we made sure that one of us was with him at all times if we weren’t at work. We even had my mom in on the act and would bring him over to her to babysit if we went out together. She loved sitting with Floydie. he would cuddle into her and let her feed him. The best part of all this cuddling was that he was litter trained. When he woke up and had to go, he would run around on you until you put him in his cage. He would do his thing, then clammer to the cage door to be picked up again, each time taking a drink and stuffing something into a cheek pouch for later before settling in on one of his parents again.
These practices became more and more frequent as Floyd aged. These hammies get elderly about 18 months of age. Floyd lived 27 months. As he got older and thinner we would take him into Boston to Angell Memorial Hospital. After 2 or 3 visits, Floyd was diagnosed with Lymphoma and given 2 weeks to live. I was a total basket case. I was devastated that he might suffer, but the vets assured me that he was not in pain and gave me signs to look for. Starting that day, we would feed him three to four times a day with an eyedropper filled with Pedialite and Ensure. He liked the banana flavor. Such a little sweetie.
Just after midnight Monday night, I was watching TV holding Floyd against my chest as he slept. When my husband went to take him from me, he noticed that he couldn’t feel Floyd’s heartbeat. He knew that this was what we’d both been dreading, and told me that it was time to tell Floyd to go to the rainbow bridge. I cried and cried. We wrapped him up and crossed him with holy water. We said some prayers for the dead and put him in his house with a battery-operated candle for his perpetual light. The next morning we took Floyd to the Animal Rescue League to be cremated. The same man was in the office that was there the day I adopted Floyd. The one that sent me in to ‘pet something fluffy’, He’s a wonderful and very compassionate man who loves his job and obviously finds great fulfillment in helping animal lovers and their pets. He was so sympathetic and kind. They are great to deal with. We purchased a tiny heart-shaped urn with his name, dates, and ‘we will always love and miss you’ engraved on the lid.
I will get a call in about a week to go pick up Floydie’s remains. Maybe I”ll go check out the shelter while I’m there. Floyd was one of those special pets that knew we loved him and actually took the time to love us back. Those are the hardest ones to lose, but we know that Floydie is at the rainbow bridge with all of our other pets and that they are waiting to greet us when we get there.