Goodbye Pickle.

Pickle the hamster came to live with us in July 2008.

He (or she) was the much loved pet of Abigail who held him and played with him for hours on end.

(Abigail took these photo's recently with my old camera.)

A few weeks ago Pickle had a gummy eye, after a couple of doses of eye drop antibiotics it seemed to get better but on Thursday he suddenly was very, very ill. We could only get an appointment at the vet for the next day but before the time came for that appointment Abigail discovered he was dead. Poor little guy, I'm not sure if the heat had something to do with it but at 2 and a half years old he was a grampa by hamster standards, but Abigail was devastated.

We buried him in the garden and had a little "funeral".

Dealing with death is hard for anybody and this was Abigail's first real experience of it. She was very upset and would tear up from time to time throughout the day, or come up to me quietly and say softly "I miss Pickle".

Niave on the other hand is very matter of fact about it. She is convinced that Pickle is in heaven so he is happy and she is happy he died so he could go to heaven! Not quite the same emotions that Abigail was feeling!

Anyway, we have a new hamster as of yesterday, a girl, named Annie (yes, she's been watching a lot of Annie these holidays!!) so everyone is a little happier and she is very cute.

And so we enter phase 2 of hamster ownership - Niave has been promised one when she is 6 so our days of hamsters are far from over!!