Goodbye, Sweet AnAn....

AnAn

December 23rd 2009 ~ December 3rd 2011

Thank you for keeping me company all this while.

Will we meet again?

It is my dearest wish that we will.

All Of You Are In Trouble

You are in trouble.  I told you countless times NOT to BARK indiscriminately all day and all night at those dogs outside.  They are NONE of your business!

You are in trouble.  Don't try to look demure.  I told you NOT to bark at our neighbors.  They are NOT a threat to us!  You should know who they are by now, you blind dog.

You too are in trouble, all of you.  Don't loiter in my car park!

Maybe you too but you are fortunate you are not living with me. That's Mr & Mrs Big Bully from my workplace waiting for my chicken rice.  His daily morning greeting for me, by the way, is priceless and has everybody smiling.  He will whine happily while dancing and spinning around my legs, sometimes using his paws to touch me quickly and sneakily.  Priceless, my love for him grows by the day.

This is why all of you are in trouble.  Found this plastered (with relish and gusto and gloatfully, I imagine) on my gate when I came home yesterday.  I may have to move out..or my dogs may be confiscated!

Ummm, did they say anything about hamsters?

Time For A Drink

Momo : Thristy, thirsty!

An An : Me too!

AnAn's White Christmas

AnAn has made a white Christmas for herself - by tearing to shreds the foam plate I used to cushion her wheel.

Meticulous AnAn

Hamsters are very meticulous creatures. AnAn picked every piece of corn kernel from her plate and stashed them up like a pyramid in a little corner of her tank. Obviously she treasures her corn (and chestnut) more than her store-bought titbits. She was "playing chess with Grandpa Zhou" when I intruded. When someone nods off to sleep we say that they've gone for a game of chess with Zhou Gong (Grandpa Zhou). Not sure how that came about but it's lighter and more humorous than saying so-and-so has gone to sleep. I think.

I Can Sleep Under Pressure

An An sleeps oblivious to all the noise in the house. If you don't want to grow old beyond your years, rear hamsters, not dogs.

Life's Ok

This is supposed to be a hamster blog but I didn't know that dogs will be a part of my life when I started blogging! My 3 hamsters are living very contented (albeit boring) lives and they are also putting on a bit of weight. An An eating and falling asleep........

Send Me The Pillow

I bought new pillows for my hamsters and as usual Momokuai is always the one to tear it apart. That's one thing she has in common with the dog.

Poor Dears

A dog is so consuming that Mi, An and Mokuai have been rather neglected. Their daily routine consists of sleeping 12 hours during the day, stirring when the sun goes down. Stretching and yawning and then preening themselves like an emperor's consort for at least another hour before jogging till dawn on their wheels. That is so boring but for the moment that will have to suffice. Till the day when I can get them a bigger playground, with lots of tunnels! Hang on there hamsters!

Come Out And Play...Please?

My name is Coco....what's yours? Want to come out and play.........? That seems to be on the dog's mind. May has become June and life with 3 hamsters and 1 dog has been nothing but busy!

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?

For several weeks now An An has been behaving weirdly. And loudly. She seems to be having some kind of obsessive compulsive disorder. Instead of entering her igloo through the door she would go to the back, lift it up with her snout and drag out her blanket. Then she will stuff it in her pouch and bring it into the igloo using the door. Then she will go out again, lift the back of the igloo with her snout, drag out her blanket and repeat the whole process endlessly. Since it looked like an exhausting disorder sometimes I turn her house upside down to stop the ruckus. The next morning I found her sleeping inside the toilet with her blanket.

Didn't Know You Were Away

Life had been a whirlwind of events. Went away for a weekend and that was the first time I had ever been away from my hamsters. My friend was kind enough to look after them for me, God bless her! Like an anxious mother I felt uneasy being away from them and drove 20 km to bring them home even though it was near midnight. They slept oblivious to my hardship and didn't even seem to miss me. Well, what do you expect from these short-sighted rodents?

Arch Enemies

I made a few more attempts to put the 3 hamsters together in the hope that they will live amicably together like old times. It was not to be. After sniffing each other out one of them will pounce. After all the horror stories on the net about hamsters killing each other, I decided not to take any more chances.

God To My Hamsters

While Mimi snuggles up to AnAn, Momokuai sleeps in isolation. Oh, so sad. The black spot on AnAn's stomach is a bitemark about to heal. Now there are several more. So sad, so sad. It's like 2 of your children fighting - your heart goes out to both. There's no favoritism and instead of spanking Momokuai, all I want to do is comfort her. But being a hamster who doesn't understand a human, she runs away and refuses to let me touch her. Instead of letting me wipe her wounds, she licks them herself. At that instant, I thought to myself, is that how God feels about us when we hurt each other? It's not so much He getting angry with us but rather aching for us and longing to take us in His arms and wanting to wipe away our hurt. And most of us won't let Him.

Excusez-Moi?

Ex-kewzay mwah -- is that my butt you're holding?

Bite Marks

Perhaps it's the weather. It has been dry for months. Hot, humid, stuffy, smoky. It has become impossible to keep the windows open. The air conditioner is on the minute you're inside the house. It can't be helped unless you want to inhale smoke all day/night. Yes, perhaps it's this kind of unbearable weather that has been making my hamsters irritable and cranky. Last night when I bathed them I noticed bite marks on their bodies. Every now and then I have seen them tussling with each other and when one squeals you will know that she has been bitten. It's hard to pinpoint who the culprit is because I have seen Momokuai biting AnAn and AnAn biting Mimi and Mimi biting Momokuai. Hhhhmmmmm.

The Trouble They Bring

9 am Saturday morning. Mimi was fast asleep but not the other 2. Sensing my presence as I swept and cleaned they paced the cage restlessly, gnawing at the bars and looking at me ever so hopefully. That was the last straw - I cannot resist pitiful, pleading people/animals. So I thought I'd let them roam a little inside the toilet with the door closed while I proceeded to clean out my home and their home. Look what I found when I opened the door. AnAn and Momokuai the little gnawing devils have managed to make breadcrumbs out of the plaster on the wall.

No Sand No Cough

At first it was Momokuai coughing, then it was AnAn. I have a grim suspicion that the cause is that "hamster bathing sand" which I put out for them. Mimi is the only one who's not coughing and that's because she avoids it altogether. Two days after I removed the sand, I noticed that they coughed less often. That item will be deleted from my shopping list.

Flashback

Life has been busy - so busy that I don't have time to whip out my camera, much less aim them at my hamsters. So an old photo will have to make do for this entry. Mimi's brood of 4. Their fur just growing, their eyes still shut tight. Like anxious mothers, my sister and I would count the days when their fur would sprout and their eyes would open. We will text each other and report "Oh ya - Lele peered at me today! He has got one eye open!" or "Hey, there are two girls and two boys!" or "Oh, we've got one brown one!". So excited were we as if they were our very own babies. Now we will text each other and report whose hamsters are cuter/smarter/naughtier. Everyday we will send pictures of them to each other. Ya, ya, we got nothing better to do with our time......

To The Left, To The Left

Mmm--hmm, this should do the trick. I'll be Beyonce in a jiffy...........