We didn’t have the best of luck with pets as a child. Jenny had a horrible little crab that used to escape and we would find it in weird places. My first hamster’s sad little life ended quite tragically. I had spent many hours crocheting a leash. (Don’t judge me, all children in Wyoming crocheted their pets leashes.) Anyway, I then proudly harnessed my hamster and took her on a walk down to the Lancaster’s. Yet we never made it to the destination because a very scary dog showed up, barked once and my little hamster died instantly from heart failure.
We (Jenny, Jared, Jason, and I) were then entrusted with a second hamster. Oh, the hours I spent dressing up the hamster in all my doll clothes. He was a very happy companion at a time when my older siblings made up horror stories to scare me into staying at home rather than accompanying them to the park. To this day I am still afraid of all dogs, Nazi’s and anyone over the age of 75. Sadly one day our beloved pet also left us. Not by death, but by escaping into the wild to live with all the other happy hamsters.
Last week my parents visited us in Montana bringing with them my favorite bag of doll clothing for Sarah to play with. It was quite the shock when Sarah’s friend came up to me holding the sad remains of our beloved hamster. Yes, it appears I might have left the poor dressed up hamster in my bag where he must have died slowly and then decomposed over the next 30 years. Well at least it wasn’t the crab.
