The Hamster Chronicles Part 8

Thursday, May 29, 1997

This is another sad one I'm afraid: Percy died last night. I was up at about 2 a.m. and happened to glance into his cage. He was lying near his water bottle in a rather unnatural-looking pose, and when I picked him up it was easy to figure out what had happened.

This was all rather unexpected. Paul developed severe health problems a few weeks before he died at age two, but Percy had turned two a month and a half ago and seemed to be doing fine. We fully expected him to make it to the 1000 day mark that all the books say is the Syrian hamster's life expectancy. Certainly he had slowed down lately. In fact, I rearranged his cage just a few days ago to make it easier for him to get around. Still, just yesterday Joanne commented on how well he seemed to be doing.

So: we are now hamster-less for the first time in almost three-and- a- half years. I imagine we'll remedy this deficiency shortly, although we have no specific plans yet.

Copyright 1997 Glenn G. Chappell. "The Hamster Chronicles, Part 8" may be freely copied and distributed provided that the text is unchanged, this notice is retained, and no fee is charged for said distribution. Distribution for a fee may only be done with express written permission of the author. While it is not strictly required, the author would also appreciate being notified if The Hamster Chronicles are made available to the public free of charge. E-mail: chappellg@member.ams.org

Next comes Part 9. Or go back to the Table of Contents.