New Pet

Eli brought home the class pet for the summer: a little grey hamster named Smokey. When I told my mom, she said, "Oh, no. Why????"

We had a series of hamsters as pets when I was a kid, and they always lost their lives tragically. Many, many times, our hamsters would escape their cages in the middle of the night, and we would find them later in the sump pump. Once, some little kid, the child of some guests my parents had over for dinner, squeezed my hamster to death (or maybe he threw him? I can't quite remember). One very terrible time, we made the mistake of putting two hamsters in the same cage, and one ate the other.

It's understandable that my mom is no longer fond of hamsters, but so far Smokey has survived his stay with us and only needs to stay alive for three more weeks before we return him to his rightful owner.

Not surprisingly, considering that he's the pet in a classroom of 25 kids, Smokey is not fond of people. He doesn't like to be picked up or held...or touched. He does like to bite. We made it our mission to acclimate him to humans this summer, but although he has made progress, I doubt he'll ever get to the point that he likes to be held. He has the personality of a really old dog...he's not mean; he just wants to be left alone.


Here's a little side story about pets from my childhood: At some point in my later elementary school years, a friend and I did a school project involving three mice. I have absolutely zero memory of the school project, but I do remember the mice because my friend took one home as a pet and I took the other two. Their names were Donny and Joseph; my friend's mouse was named Jordan. ❤ NKOTB ❤

Mice may not be as cute as hamsters, but they do make pretty fun pets. Sadly, I think my mice may have lost their lives in the sump pump.