You were the smallest hammie of the lot. The 3rd hammie to be chosen after Joey and Pixie.
One day, I was complacent, and didn’t leave some old bedding behind. Pixie went a little territorial after that and attacked Joey. Joey went ballistic too and attacked you for a little while, and I made that decision to put you with Pixie and Joey alone, thinking Joey was the crazy one. That was the night you lost the use of your left hand, and had a deep gash in your neck. Thankfully, I awoke in the middle of the night before things got any worse.
After that day, you never let anyone near you, and I could never carry you since. Cleaning your cage was a feat as I had to wait till you were in your little house or in the wheel before I could take you out.
You made it through the rest of the months with 3 limbs, even learning to do spidey wall climbs with just 3 functioning limbs. Amazing feat. A fighter you are. But you were still small. I didn’t know why, but you could never get as fat as Joey or Pixie.
I made a decision to let go of Pixie and Joey as I felt the three of you were much too caged up. I kept you as I knew you won’t let yourself be handled. It would be hard for a little boy to play with you then. I changed you to a smaller cage and you seemed to keep yourself in the tube alot, although I did see your spidey climbs at each meal time.
Before I left on my holiday, you were fine. When I came back, I didn’t really check on you but I thought you were okay. Days later after realising that you hadn’t been doing your spidey climb during meal times, I noticed that you had shrunk. I was told you hadn’t drunk much water when I was away, but you were never the one who drank alot from the start. But what was worse was that I realised you had not been eating as your bowl was overflowing with the past days meals.
I panicked and called you out and realised your entire left arm up to your shoulders was unable to move, your left eye closed and you walked funny when you came to me. I frantically cleaned out your cage and googled all possible illnesses you could have and realised you had a stroke. I tried to force feed you. You took 1 sunflower seed from my hand and you drank 100 plus from the bottle. Afterwards, you took another sunflower seed and went back to sleep. I thought there was hope.
The following day you refused to eat or drink despite being force fed but you managed to make your way to the door where I was, so I let you be, putting your bowl and water in a more easily accessible place. The third day I panicked as you refused to move despite everything I did. The fourth day was worrying when after forcing you out, you could not move your right hind leg either and each step seemed very very difficult, like a dying crawl. I removed your tubes so it was easy to get to you. It must have been painful for you to walk on your bedding as you kept to smooth surfaces. I dug out your favourite TV set house that I confiscated before (because you were ALWAYS in there) and you slowly climbed in. I placed the food and water near your little corner and placed the scapula above your cage. That night, I made a decision to euthanise you, to ease your pain.
The next morning before I left the house, I checked you in your little TV house. You were breathing slowly, and crunched up in an awkward position. It was hard to watch and I decided to bring you to the vet when I got back in the afternoon. At 1pm I got a call. You were already dead. You must have known, or probably after fighting for a week, your little body could not fight anymore. I buried you downstairs, with the scapula to protect you. I didn’t cry until I got home and washed your cage. This time, I was cleaning the cage and not replacing the bedding, not topping up the food, not changing the water and not putting you back in.
It was a good 10 months for me, and a good 11 months of your life.
Dear Noelle, RIP. March 2009 – 17 January 2010.
With love.
