Recently, while we were on vacation, a big storm hit our house. My brother's hamsters (Bree and Barney Calhoun - yes, we named the hamster after a video game character) and his guinea pig (Timothy) got stressed, caught a cold and died. Timothy's death hit hard on all of us, especially my guinea pig (Timothy's brother), Benjamin. I remember when we'd take both of the pigs out and the only way Ben would move is if he was following Tim. When Tim first died, Ben was searching around for him. It was really sad. I have three hamsters. A mother and two of her daughters. My brother's hamsters were the father and the three-legged son. Well, Shasta, the mother hamster, is getting old. She's getting kinda sick and she's got a big tumor on her belly. She's not acting too much different, but I hate to see her this way. But what's neat is that Shasta's daughters, Argentina and Totoro, groom her where she can't reach. It's neat how they take care of each other like that. I don't thing Shasta will last much longer. She is getting pretty old. It's getting to be that time that every pet owner dreads.
That's what I never liked about having rodents for pets. They're so much fun, but they live so short and usually die in ways you really don't want to see them go. I should know too because I've had a total of 7 rats or so in the past. Hope you guys can get through it! It's tough.
Sorry to hear about your pets. It is hard when they live such short lives. Our 3 cats are getting up there. Cassie is 21 and we are hoping she makes it until Dom gets home. She can't jump to her favourite spots so I lift her to them. Punkin is 18 or so and he is so fat it is sort of funny, but he also has arthritis so that makes it not funny. Lucky is about 13 and even he is slowing down. I don't think we will get any pets when our three are gone. It is too much work and really not fair to them since we can't do stuff with them. But we do have lots of memories to make us smile and laugh out right. I am sure you have lots of those as well.
Aw. I'm e-hugging you. It's a good thing you were away from the house when the storm hit, though. Also, I loveee naming pets. So cute! :3 My hamsters have been: Collin & Dicken from Secret Garden, Phoebe from Catcher in the Rye, and Fitzwilliam and Charles from Pride and Prejudice. My turtles were Shiva and Vishnu from Hindu lore.
Thanks guys. :redface: We've kept too many dwarf hamsters to remember. Quite possibly over 100 in the course of several years (though many of them were given to other people). They each lived only a few years each, but they were fun while they lasted. I lost my Syrian hamster, Rover, in December of 2007. She had just turned two a month earlier. It was hard. She was a cool hamster. I don't think I'll have to worry about the cats for a while. Mimi and Buddy are both only seven and they still get around fine. I mean, they're lazy, but they're cats. I lost my first dog, Spanky, in 2001. I was ten years old and he was fourteen. Six years later, in late 2007, I got my very own corgi puppy. I imagine he'll be with me for a long, long time.
The loss of a fury loved one can be very impactful. People who think that mourning a pet is crazy have never had a good pet, IMHO. I lost my best kitty, Val when he was twelve. He was born on my bed while I slept and I woke up to find his momma and her new babies right next to me. At first I thought it was gross, but then I realized what a compliment it was that Momma felt so safe with me. Val got cancer and I had to have him put down ‘cause he was really suffering. It was super hard. I cried for days. He was the best cat ever. I had him cremated and I still have him, in a pretty urn, where he can look out of a window. I know, I’m crazy, right? He was so smart and I knew him so well, that I’m sure if one day he had actually spoken to me, in real human words, I would probably not even have noticed that it was out of the ordinary.
Some people think it's weird that I was depressed after one of my first fishies, a panda corydoras catfish named Leviathan, died. I watched her suffer and there wasn't anything I could do for her. But there was a huge impact when my peppered corydoras catfish, Behemoth, died after being beaten up by some serpae tetras that the pet shop lady said are 'very peaceful around catfish.' I was still a beginner then so I stupidly took her word for it (this is the same pet shop where they had koi swordtails [a tropical fish] in a cold water tank, thinking they were koi even though my eight-year-old sister knew better). Behemoth lived a pretty long life. He was a neat fish. Thankfully, everybody in my family mostly understands why people get upset when they lose a pet. Even my dad, who is definitely not an animal person. I remember when my first cat (named Miss Moppet after the cat in a classic story) was driven away by Bitty (Or Bitty-Brain, as my dad called her), Mimi and Buddy's mom. It was sad. I still miss her, even though she was the most aloof cat I've ever seen. And there was Baby, a stray cat we took in. He was adorable. We couldn't keep him so we gave him to our friends who live on a farm, but he got sick and died. Nobody saw it coming. Cats are good at hiding that they're sick.
Pets are better people than most people are. And that's coming from someone who likes more people than he dislikes. My deepest condolences on the loss of family.
Unfortunately it's unavoidable, but the happiness of having a furry friend outweighs the depression of their passing. (Are you sure the serpae's killed it, not just picked at its corpse? They really aren't bad, and almost nothing messes with corydoras)
Yeah. I saw them kill my corydoras. The pet shop lady sold me two serpae tetras and one other fish, passing it off as a serpae tetra, telling me that they're peaceful fish. They killed the other fish, then they killed Behemoth. By the time I could get them out of there, it was too late. They ripped his tail off and he died soon afterward.
