Be A Good Mom

Geetle came home from school on Monday and gave the usual report…she played dinosaurs with Matthew, Eric wore his wheelie shoes again, etc. Then she casually told us that Sunny had died. Sunny is the class hamster. Given our recent Winnie problem, we were taken by surprise.

BAGM: What does that mean, that Sunny died?

Geetle: She went away and is not coming back.

BAGM: Does that make you sad?

Geetle: No.

BAGM: What did the teacher say about Sunny today?

Geetle: That we are taking a break from pets.

Given this turn of events, we decided to rethink our Winnie plan. It seems like Geetle is ready to learn about the death of pets. So, today BAGD took a “phone call” from the Hamster Groomer while Geetle was at school. When she got home, we told her that the Groomer called to say that Winnie had died. She got very quiet. BAGD asked her if she wanted to pick out a new hamster from the babies born to BAGD’s uncle. She said yes, but turned away. Later BAGD asked her what she was thinking about and she said “Winnie.” I think that got him right in the Daddy, so he asked if she wanted to go get a new hamster today. Of course she did, so off they went to the Petstore.

We now have a new Winnie. This one is caramel colored. But her name is Winnie. Geetle says she likes the name and wants to use it again; she likes the letter “W”. I think she is totally over the old Winnie. But she did ask me tonite if Winnie and Sunny were together. I told her yes. I do not think she understands death, but I think she understands it means going away and not coming back.

So that problem is solved, somewhat. Now our next problem is whether or not to force Geetle to rename the new Winnie. It sounds harmless enough, naming the new hamster the same as the old. But remember Pookie. That is pretty confusing to him. So, we might just hijack the naming. BAGD and I are pretty confident that if we start calling new Winnie something else, the kids will follow. Right now, we are tossing around “Cupcake” “Hammy” and “Waffles.”

By reading this, you are sworn to secrecy. Remember that.

Winnie III has died. BAGD and I came upon her in her final hours yesterday. She was laying on her side and panting. It was very sad. We offered the best Hamster Hospice care that we could and left her to die in peace. Now, we have a dilemma. Same one we have faced before, but with a twist.

BAGD’s uncle recently bought his kids a hamster. A week or so after they got her home, she gave birth to 7 babies. Quite a surprise. The pet store offered to take them back, but he is going to keep them a while and see what happens. So, we need a hamster…he has 7 extras to get rid of.

Do we tell the kids that Winnie died? Do we let them pick out one of Uncle’s new hamsters, to cushion the blow? Or do we replace Winne III in the same manner that we replaced Winnie Uno and Winnie Duece?

We decided to sneak in a new Winnie 4.0. We felt that Geetle would be Ok with Winnie III’s death and could get behind picking out one of Uncle’s new hamsters for her very own. But those hamsters are just 14 days old right now. So when we took our new hamster home, he/she would be no more than a month old and pretty fragile. What if he/she died too? That would be 2 deaths to handle within a very short period of time.

So, Winnie III is “at the groomers” right now. Sometime this week, BAGD will go and pick up Winnie 4.0 and bring her home….back from “the groomer’s.” Only you, me and BAGD will know the truth.

I would like to offer this eulogy to Winnie III. Winnie, of all the Winnies, you were my favorite. After seeing how you ran around in your wheel and ball, I can hardly believe that your little hamster heart gave out on you. You seemed so physically fit. You were very friendly and the kids loved you. We will help your memory live on.

Any idea what I can do with 8 boxes of table salt?

About a month ago, we were afraid we had a flea problem. Chloe (Mamaw’s dog) had come to visit and started to show signs of fleas a few days later. We also caught a jumping bug in the basement and one in the second floor. Plus, I had bites on my ankles, which we thought were Prurigo of Pregnancy at first.

Being 6 1/2 months pregnant at the time, we knew we could not use a bug bomb and smoke the fleas out. And we were not completely sure we even had fleas. I had bites, but no one else did. The doctor said they looked like chigger bites and we did have a patch of long grass in our backyard, perfect for chiggers. We saw 2 jumping bugs, but they did not look like what we saw on the internet. We did not know what to do.

We did some internet research and decided to start with low-tech methods of handling the situation. We washed all the bedding in hot water. BAGD vacuumed the house almost daily. Then we read that sprinkling regular table salt on your carpets could desiccate any flea eggs in the fibers. We decided to give it a try. We sprinkled 6 or 7 boxes of salt all over the house and vacuumed it up a a day and a half later. According to the article, we should do this again in a week or so.

Well….as with many things around here, we sort of got distracted and forgot. I bought 8 more boxes of salt, but we saw no more jumping bugs, my bites went away and Chole seemed cured. So, we never re-salted.

Over a month has passed, so either we never had fleas or the vacuuming and first salting did the trick. But now I have 8 boxes of table salt sitting around. Any ideas on how I can use it up?

While we all had a great time at Winnie’s birthday party the other night, there was one black cloud hanging over the festivities. We are hamster sitting for Aunt Shel’s furry friend, Crash, while she gets ready for her wedding and honeymoon. Crash and Winnie do not socialize, but they are aware of each other. So, we thought, what a coincidence, Crash can come to the birthday party. We’ll put them each in their own ball and have hamster races at the end of the party.

But then Crash disappeared. We came down one morning and he was gone. Unfortunately, Geetle blamed this on Pookie and we believed her for a little while. Then we determined that Crash had busted out thru the top of his cage, popping the tape that Aunt Shel had put there to prevent that very thing.

So, he has been on the lam for about 4 days now. We have a carrot in the middle of the kitchen floor, just waiting for him to come and get it. Its gone limp by now, and we have no sign of Crash.

Winnie got out once, the morning BAGD and I were to leave for our cruise. But BAGD is smarter than the average domesticated animal, so he rigged a trap. He put Winnie’s food in a bowl inside her cage (a fish tank at that point), made a ramp so that she could walk up to the top of the cage and jump (fall!) into the cage, but could not get out again. It worked within 12 hours. Unfortunately, Crash is not falling for this trick.

Come to think of it, Winnie got out another time. She lives in the basement playroom, but when she got out that time, we found her under the stove. She apparently walked up the stairs and thru an old cat door we have in the door leading to the basement. I saw her, got her a carrot and she came out. That’s why I thought a carrot would work on Crash.

According to this website, it is best to find the hamster within a few days. We are already at 4 days, so our window is closing. We just thought he would come back on his own. But tonite I am going to try the peanut butter mentioned in the article. Maybe the carrot was not the best bait. Uncle JB is here tonite. Maybe I can get him and BAGD to look under the furniture and appliances (Crash was bunking in the dining room). I would do it myself, but if I do and then I go into early labor, I don’t really think it was worth it. Sorry Crash.

Last night we celebrated a very important day, Winnie the Hamster’s Birthday. Geetle had decided a few weeks ago that Winnie should have a birthday, but since we did not know when she was born, Geetle would pick the day. It was July 24th.

Geetle did alot of planning, she send out invitations, including one to Winnie herself and Grandma V. She decide we should have pizza and cupcakes for dinner. She made party hats and a paper chain for decorations. Grandma helped her with the cupcakes and they even colored their own wrapping paper for Winnie’s gift and bought some balloons.

During the party, Winnie ate in the kitchen with us, in a big red Rubbermaid box. Geetle cut up some carrots for her to eat and she stuffed them all in her cheek pouches. We talked about the first day we met Winnie, how we picked out her name and the time she got loose when we were on vacation.

At the end of the meal, Geetle helped Winnie open all her presents, showing each one to Winnie. Then we put on our party hats and had cupcakes.

I do not think any Hamster ever had a better birthday party. Winnie is lucky to have a friend like Geetle to plan such an event.