My Adventure of Breeding Rodents II

It has been almost 3 months now since I ventured into the rodent breeding excursion. Much has happened and almost akin to an episode of one of those South American (SA) soap operas, it has had murder, death, heartbreak, cover-ups etc. Remember the two hamsters we had, Bart & Ene? Remember I mentioned that we had suspected that Ene was pregnant. Well, our suspicions were true. She was.

Then Bart died.

How Bart died was a mystery in itself. I woke up one late Saturday afternoon to find Bart dead, half his body trapped between the cage-door. Now, we had made it habit in leaving the cage outside our room because hamsters being nocturnal, would be making a bloody racket around 3am – 6am, playing on their wheel and such. We suspected foul play. The suspects were the Missus’ nephews, whom her mum baby-sat for on weekends. Further investigation revealed nothing. No one was talking. Everyone denied knowledge. We smelled a cover-up.

I buried Bart outside our bedroom window.

We were worried that Ene might die of heartbreak as it is the norm for hamsters of this particular species but fortunately, she gave birth the very next day. And thus, for the next 2 weeks, she had been a single mother, raising 5 children on her own. We watched them grow up, hand-fed and tamed them till the point that they’ve recognized our voices.

Then the owner wanted them back. The initial agreement was to breed them and we would get one hamster as service fee. Demmit! We had to return them, minus one. We stalled the owner as long as we could, for almost 3 weeks in fact but the day came when we had to face the reality that we had to be parted from the whole family.

So, now we’re left with only one. The Missus had grown attached to on hamster, a male and the largest in the litter. We aptly named him Chubby. Chubby was the most tamed, and closest to the Missus and thus we had negotiated to have him.

So, today the Missus and I are going to look for a girlfriend for Chubby as well as new accommodations. We intend to breed more cute 'lil hamsters but this time round, the hamsters will be ours… and our alone.