2001-08-11 - 11:28 p.m.

Cinnie

Being a Saturday in the middle of the month, this evening was devoted to comic book order forms. It's not thrilling, but it's something that has to be done.

During a break I went into the computer room to check on something. Since Cinnie's cage is right next to the computer, I looked in on her. I didn't like the way she was lying in the cage so I reached in an touched her. She was dead. In fact, she must have died only a couple of hours before.

Damn. I was hoping that she was going to beat it. Yesterday she seemed like she was getting better, but that turned out to be an Indian Summer.

I've worked hard to tame Cinnie, and now she's gone. She was too active and wriggly to be much fun to play with, but she had a real zest from running in that clear plastic ball. She was also fun to watch when she was in her cage. I was glad that I thought to put her cage next to the computer.

I have no idea where she got the Wet Tail disease from. She hasn't been near another hamster since I bought her at the pet store months ago. She couldn't have caught it from me, could she?

I was planning on breeding her with Sweet Moses, in fact I was kicking myself for not getting moving on that sooner since the Summer is almost over. I was hoping to get a nice long-haired gray hamster or two. Now, I'm glad that I didn't. Losing a friendly hamster is bad enough, but losing a mother and a litter of babies would be heartbreaking.

I still want to breed Sweet Mo though, so I suppose that I'll have to buy a new little girl hamster. I should get moving on that as soon as possible.

But it seems such a terrible shame to have lost Cinnie. After all, she was the youngest hamster in the house.