Pinky’s birthday is 17th of September, or that is the invoice date that started that she is 4 weeks old by that time. I keep the invoice as her birth certificate. She is a female Roborovski, white-faced, originated from Mongolia. I always picture how Genghis Khan and his troop would react when they happened to encounter these cute little creatures. The tough soldiers might drop their weapons, play and awwww and not killing someone that day.
She was the only female in her batch, got a little bit of blond hair, and very active. We bought her a nice little pinky cage with pinky wheel and pinky food tray. It was very cute but soon I made another trip to buy her a two-storey cage because I don’t like to see her that limited. She could explore little house, slide and have bigger wheel.
She liked to relax at what I called as the ‘balcony’ area and staring at us. She recognized my voice and I could help to pamper her by giving her some treats every morning, peeled sunflower seeds. She would jump around happily and eagerly wait for me by pushing her face in between the trellis.
She can be solitary, but I would like to give her a friend. We brought her back to the shop by motorcycle so that she could choose her friend. It was a twenty minutes ride and I put her in her original box with ventilation, we were using motorcycle.
When we reached the place, Pinky was not moving. We tilted the container, she was still not moving. We called out to her a few times, I had the worst fear all of the sudden, then she woke up. She had good sleep because she liked motorcycle ride too, like me. It was scary minute.
So we put her in big container and the shopkeeper picked us another hamster, half her size because she is already adult size while Brownie is still a kiddy. We have heard so much about hamster fights, it was worrisome when Browsie ran and tackled her. What she did? Being that active and that lively that she is, she just kept quiet, eyes closed while Brownies excitely said hello, then they became best friends.
Brownies is timid and shy, while Pinky had the highest spirit, very energetic happy little gal. She responds to my voice every morning and jumped up and down waiting for the treats, while Browsie looked from the corner. Her energy was contagious, and I suspected she taught Brownies a lot of things. Soon later, both of them jumped up and down every morning but they never fight, because I always fair, almost always.
After a while, Pinky seemed not to like her two storey cage that much, so I moved them to container where they have bigger running space and I can interact with them from top, something that we couldn’t do when they stayed in the cage. It was not easy to tame them, but after a while, they recognized my hand, and willingly climbed up and hung on patiently while I transfer them to another place where they could run and play more freely, sometimes in special corner on the floor with supervision, sometimes in the tub. Brownies is still more timid but easily tamed, while Pinky was very smart and could learn what to expect in few tries. Climb to hand is vacation, holiday, explore new places.
Soon after, both ,especially Pinky even let me stroke their head until they slept, just like a puppy. I could pick Pinky up and hold her in my palm while I stroke her head and she would just stay quiet.
When we came back from our long trip last year, I notice that Pinky had somehow became smaller, or maybe Brownies is fatter. Brownies grew to her size in very short time but they were always compatible until after the trip she was significantly smaller. But she was her usual self, jovial, energetic and whoever said hamster don’t recognize your affection, is wrong. They jumped when they heard our voice and happily running around when we were back, not hesitating for a minute before climbing up my hand again.
Since she seemed smaller, I started to give her more treat when Brownies was not looking. Hers, actually, both favorite food is steamed sweet corn. Steamed! If they got it, they would run to the corner, enjoyed and sometimes asked for more. I only gave them two seeds at a time because it must be a full meal for them. They could smell it far far away, and I often found them sniffing the air with excitement even before I was close to their home.
To prevent them from being bored, I bought many type of foods and mix them in one container so that they would always have something that they like. I liked to create mazes, houses, tunnels because it must be very boring staying inside. That was only so much I could do for them. I had plan to bring them out to the park, although I would need to keep them in the ball, but at least they can run around and smell the grass, however, I didn’t have chance to do so.
I started to notice that Pinky has difficulty peeing, she would take so much time just to squat in the corner. Sure enough, I notice some growth on her kidney area.
I had hamsters before, when they were sick, we brought them to pet hospital and the vet couldn’t do anything for them because they are too small. So basically, I knew there was nothing we could do.
But Pinky never stopped inspiring me. I stopped playing with her or let her climb up my hand because I afraid I would hurt her. Every day, she still responded to my voice, jumped up and down happily all the same and did so until yesterday, the last day of her. Her physical condition had become significantly worse but her action and movement remained the same high spirited and energetic as ever. Everytime I called her, she would run around, jump out and down. Her size had shrink down to half of Brownies, eventhough she didn’t look as pretty, Brownies didn’t care, they still like to cuddle together and grooming each other.
Since she became much smaller, yesterday she seemed to have difficulties in climbing up to the sandpit, unlike before. So I changed her home nicely to thickest bedding so she can be as comfortable, best quality and thickest sand pit with mini staircases so that she could climb more easily. She still eagerly explored her newly changed house as usual, kaypoh and curious, very active and snatch her favorite corn from my hand excitedly.
She enjoyed it for a day, and this morning she was motionless next to the staircase I created especially for her.
Up until her last breath, she never down and low spirited. Beside her physical appearance, she was the same active playful loveable Pinky since 17th September 2010.
She is the small creature who touch my life, and inspire me to be strong and never down. I want to be as strong as her. She never showed her weakness and showed me that she was happy every day.
I brought her to special resting place where she can finally enjoy being around the nature, where cicada sings to her every time every day.
With great sadness, I’m missing you, Pinky. All hamsters go to heaven.
