My daughter lost her first pet today. Well, her first furry pet. Yes, she's lost fish before and yes, she was sad, but it seems that the watery grave they return to has gotten less painful for her as she has gotten older.
Yesterday we returned from Thanksgiving in MN and she went to check on Bonnie, her dwarf hamster. Bonnie had died while we were gone. Harper's little heart was broken. Her brother was sad as well, but Harper was devastated. It's such a blessing to own a pet; they give unconditional love every day. yes, they can leave hair all over and can be messy, but that doesn't seem to be limited to just pets. Bonnie was her little compadre, her OWN pet, the one she was solely responsible for. And so this blog today is dedicated to Bonnie, in the words of Harper. It doesn't matter if you have owned a hamster or a cat or a dog......it will touch you regardless.
Bonnie the Hamster
by Harper
Bonnie is a beautiful
ginger and cream colored hamster with a black stripe running from her
head down to her tail. In the winter, she turned gray. She had big,
kind, understanding eyes and was very smart. I bet she still is.
When I
first met her, I put my finger up to the
glass, and she put her fuzzy paw up, too. I would beg Mom to take me to
see her before I owned her. I got her 5 days before my family, Nieve,
and I went to Hayward. I love her, because we are a match made in
heaven.
Over the years she acquired some nicknames. Bon Bon was the
first, and I used it almost every day. Bitty Bonnie, Da and The Bonster,
and BB were some others. When Bonnie hissed, it wasn't a snake-like
sound, like a cat, or a growling sound, like a dog. It was a squeak. A
loud, squeaky-toy squeak. I loved it. I only heard twice in my life.
Once when Bonnie was being held by her vet for the first time, and once
when I scruffed her for to long.
When she was angry at you, she'd spit
her food at you. It was more funny than threatening, but we always left
her alone if that happened.
Bonnie was the hardiest hamster in the
world. She survived, in order, a URI (Upper Respiratory Infection), 3
major cat attacks (one in which Zeus the cat knocked her cage off my
desk 5 feet to the floor where it shattered in to all it's little
attachable pieces with Bonnie landing safely and unharmed in my swimsuit
drawer which Zeus had opened the night before and that I hadn't
bothered to close), a tumor (which was about the size of my first
finger, then it shrunk to a tiny pimple sized bump and then it became
slightly larger), a seizure, and at least 180 small cat attacks. Despite
all this, she lived a year and a half beyond a Djungarian (DJ for
short) hamsters average life span.
She had her own car, too. It was a
red car with flames on the side and back and front lights and a license
plate. I customized it myself, turning it into the "Bitty Bonnie
Mobile." I even customized the license plate so it said "I'm NOT the
small!" Inside the frame was a red hamster wheel she could run in, so I
could swap the modes. If If it was lower, her running powered it. If it
was high, she could run, but it wouldn't move.
I joked about her being a
"Grumpy Old Lady" almost every day. She nibbled and bit almost everyone
but me. In her last year, Zane, my brother, would pick her up , but if I
set her on him, he'd squeal like a little girl.
She starred in the home
made movie Super Luna. She was also in the Super Luna comics. I was
going to make a second Super Luna, titled "Super Luna 2, Bitty Bonnie's
Story", but I never got around to it. I regret that.
In the finals days
of her life, she wasn't falling apart or sleeping all the time. She
wasn't withdrawn or depressed. She wasn't sick or weakening. She was her
happy, hyper self. More hyper, in fact, then I'd ever seen her. She ran
around day and night. She ran so much her wheel shook, rattled, and
squeaked. Her eyes were bright and her little was filled with tunnels.
On Thanksgiving, in her final hours, she dug, ran, ate, and was happy.
She dug so many tunnels that her tiny TV house tipped over. Then, though
this drove me insane, she went to sleep in her water bottle passage. I
had always forced her out, worried about her getting soaked. Once, she
had dyed her tail green by sleeping in her puddle with green food. But
anyways, as she slept, her old, tired heart gave away, and she went to a
better place in her sleep. I cried at first, but everyone does. I'm
happier when I tell myself she's in a better place, but I'm still sad.
Bonnie touched my heart in so many ways, and I'll always miss her until
we're reunited in heaven. She, to me, was the perfect hamster , and I
love her. Whoever said hamsters were tiny obviously didn't count their
hearts.
