Yes they do have personalities.
Jul. 11th, 2009 07:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spottoI haven't posted here in a while, so for the sake of posting I shall post some interesting tidbits...of the hamsters that have come and gone in my life, and also Solo <3
First off, a pet, and any pet for that matter, will have different personalities. It is not just in humans. You could have a dumb dog, or a dumb cat, or a dumb fish...well fishes are harder to spot for personalities since all they can really do is swim around, but besides them every animal seems to have an apparent personality.
This includes hamsters.
All eight of my hamsters have unique personalities...unfortunately some of them I remember more of their quirks than others, but they all were awesome hamsters, even the bitey ones. I can remember each time getting that hamster for the first time, and how excited how felt. On the other hand I also remember each of their deaths, where in the cage/bin they died and what they looked like when they did. Those were sad moments, but remembering them is good.
So I figure keeping a record of what my hamsters acted like and were like in a nice journal post would be useful, as well as if anyone else is curious about them. :3
HAMMY (and Hobo)
Hammy was my very first hamster. For a first hamster he was a very standard hamster. Even so, he still had his own wonderful personality. Before I got Hammy he lived with another hamster, his brother named Squirrel. Squirrel was a very aggressive hamster, and never got along with Hammy. Squirrel always attacked Hammy and so they had to be separated. Interestingly enough Hammy was the bigger hamster, and my family friend's son decided to keep Squirrel because he was smaller, thus cuter.
At first, I felt disappointed because I wanted Squirrel too, since it was cuter, but then I realized it was also bitier, and in the long run, getting Hammy was something I didn't regret whatsoever.
Hammy loved food, and ate everything. Once I accidentally dropped a piece of coffee candy on the ground, and it just happened to land in front of him. He ate it. This did not kill him or anything, and he lived for pretty much another year or two after. In fact, Hammy was my longest-living hamster. He was the laziest of all my hamsters as well, so it was interesting how he didn't get much exercise yet outlived all my hamsters afterwards. 2 and a half years is a really long life for him. I was also very young and foolish then, and so mishandled Hammy from time-to-time, so it was really interesting that he lived the longest of all my hamsters.
It was not an easy task to have the record of longest living hamster I owned either. Since I was foolish and was friends with a kid who was four years younger than me, and also as foolish, we dropped our hamsters at times. Most of the time they landed on their feet and were fine, but Hammy happened to fall on his back...on the kitchen floor. He did not move. There was even blood. My mom saved the day and blew dry him (he got wet) while he was not moving. As children we were horrified then, but Hammy pulled through.
Stupidly enough, it happened again. This time on my bedroom floor which had carpet, but probably the thinnest carpet of the entire house. He also stopped moving, but came through as well. Hammy was a warrior. It seems like he's not afraid of heights since he also liked jumping out of my hands no matter how far from the ground my hands were. Hammy was a perilous hamster.
Still not convinced? At the later stages of his long long life, he suffered a stroke. We were about to go out for dinner and saw he was not moving. My mom said he'd be fine, and put him next to the food bowl, so whenever he got out of the trance he would go straight for food or something. When we got home he ran on the wheel over and over and was extremely hyper. Hammy was still alive and still kicking.
Sadly, Hammy would not live forever, and in the summer of '04, passed away in his cage in late July. His eyes were still open too, so it was quite freaky for me. We buried him in our garden, and there he still rests today. He was extremely hyper the night before though, but strangely enough a lot of my hamsters were hyper before they passed on...
HOBO (and Hammy)
Hobo was Hammy's younger brother. Or nephew. Or possibly son or grandson or cousin. I wouldn't know for sure. All I know is that he lived in the same cage as Hammy and the people who had the two had many many hamsters, all from unexpected pregnancies with hamsters of different sexes in the same cage. They weren't very responsible owners, since I heard months after getting Hammy and Hobo that they forgot to feed them and they all died. May these hamsters rest in peace.
Hobo was pretty much the exact opposite of Squirrel. He was a mellow hamster. If you could call a hamster a hippie, Hobo would be it. (And interestingly I named him Hobo) Hobo never bit once in his entire life, and he lived quite long. Only Hammy surpasses him in the length of lifespan, as Hobo lived to be over two years. He and Hammy lived very peacefully together. They both believed my bedding was inadaquate, and thus slept on each other quite often. Hobo often slept on the bigger Hammy, but sometimes Hammy would sleep on Hobo, which was quite amusing when we saw that. A large hamster on a rather small hamster. Hobo never did mind.
Although Hammy was lazy, Hobo was not as much, but I wouldn't call him active either. The two would be my laziest hamsters, but I wouldn't call Hobo that lazy. He was in the middle of the pack, very mellow and put no passion in either thing. He just took them both moderately. Sleep, eat, wheel. Hobo also didn't believe in using his teeth like traditional hamsters. He never chewed on anything and only used his claws to dig and such. He didn't even break open sunflower seeds with his teeth, and I had to do so for him. Perhaps his teeth were broken, thus never using it, but broken teeth can lead to death quite quickly, and Hobo lived very long, so I doubt it so.
Despite all this, Hobo will be forever remembered as my most dastardly clever hamster. He was an amazing escape artist. Three times in his life he escaped, and he would drag Hammy with him. We always found Hammy in the kitchen, but Hobo would take much longer to find, and he was much more unpredictable. Hobo was a mellow ninja. How many hamsters do you know that were mellow ninjas?
Unfortunately his wit would not lead him to immortality, as Hobo also passed away only two and a half weeks after Hammy. It is always sad when a hamster dies alone, as I knew Hobo missed Hammy very much after his death. Hobo also showed old age, finding it difficult to walk then. I will remember Hobo greatly as my tamest hamster, and my smartest.
VULCAN MAX
This is not a picture of Vulcan Max, rather of what she looked like (the white one).
At this point in my life I had strongly believed the fact that male hamsters were much easier to tame than female. I still somewhat believe that, but Solo has especially made that belief far more mild. So when I wanted another hamster after my wonderful experience with the great hamsters Hammy and Hobo, I definitely wanted a male. This time, since that so-called breeder let all their hamsters starve, we would need to find another source for hamsters. And that was so, in a pet shop.
I was soon about to experience the inexperience of pet store clerks.
I asked for a male. My mom saw two white hamsters in a cage FILLED with small hamster pups, running all over the place, climbing the bars, basically being incredibly wild and crazy. It was probably the cutest sight in my life. Apparently chinese people love the colour red (thus all my hamsters having red eyes all the way until Otter) and the colour white. So a white hamster with red eyes was a sign of AMAZING LUCK to my mom. Also she found them the cutest. The two white hamsters were apparently a male and a female, and the clerk went to get the male.
Unbeknownst to me and probably the store clerk as well, I recieved the female. I named "him" Vulcan Max, believing she to be male at the time after Rei's beyblade and Max. I wasn't very creative then, but Hammy isn't creative either. (Despite the name being my brother's, always calling him "HammyHamHam" so we called him Hammy for short) (I also had frogs named Fred and Frank, so yeah...)
Vulcan Max was a very shy hamster at first, like many hamsters you first get. She had the cutest pink nose, and loved to chew everything. I can still remember her hiding under the wheel constantly, just scared of me.
That is why it is so unfortunate and tragic that I do not have a picture of her. At all. At that time we had an oldstyle camera, not an expensive digital one that was getting more popular then. I took many pictures of her, but when we went to process our film and get the pictures, apparently the battery died, and took all the pictures with it. Since film was expensive and my mom didn't like me "wasting" film on hamsters instead of people, I put off taking another photo of her. Unfortunately she died before I could take one.
She passed away when I was at school, my brother finding her. The only hamster I did not find dead. My brother did not have the sense to remove her body when I got home though. >_> Of all my hamsters however, it looked like she had the most graphic death? She was dead with her mouth gaping open and her eyes open. It was a frightening sight. I believe she choked to death, so it was very upsetting finding her like that.
I think of all my hamsters I feel the most guilty for Vulcanmax. She was my first hamster who lived alone. I did not think I spent enough time with her. I have no pictures of her. And she died suddenly and tragically. I hope she is living a wonderful afterlife right now because if I could go back in time I would change the most about Vulcan Max.
My parents also have this ill-led thought that she was a mean bitey hamster too. What a misunderstood hamster D:< I am sorry, Vulcan Max.
TOTO
Speaking of mean bitey hamsters...
Here's a legitimate mean bitey hamster. Perhaps she wasn't mean, just bitey. Maybe she thought everything that could move must be bitten or something. I wouldn't know what was in her head then, but she was a bit more unique in that regard. I also have no idea why I called her Toto when I knew she was a female at start. I just loved that name a lot and wanted to call her Toto, ah well.
Unlike Hammy and Hobo, Toto came from a store. Unlike Vulcan Max, Toto came from a big chain store, ala Pet Cetera, the biggest pet store in Canada. Ever since Toto I never got another pet from that store. Their holding cells, I mean tanks for the hamsters were very, very small. It was a sad sight to see. Toto was already an adult when I got her, and the only hamster I got as an adult besides her was Hammy. (And look how well that ended up! Longest-living hamster!)
I suppose getting a hamster as an adult isn't what made Hammy live long, since Toto barely made it to three months after I got her. That was especially sad, a short-lived life...perhaps long if she was already old when I got her. I wouldn't know. It was night-time when I buried her, and raining. That must've been a sign or something. All my other hamsters were buried in the day with the exception of Asako (and it was nice and clear out then). She had A LOT of stuff in her bin then, like boxes and tubes and everything. So I don't think she was ever bored.
Even then her favourite thing was the wheel. That wheel went on forever, the squeaking sound annoying my parents constantly all night. Rest in peace Toto because you didn't really get any in your life.
HEDGEHOG
After the Toto experience, I was determined to get a male since the success of Hammy and Hobo. I was less foolish now, even though my less-foolishness didn't seem to prolong my last two hamsters' lives. They didn't sleep on pine-bedding, but in aspen. They weren't lazing in my tiny cage, but in a gigantic bin. And other such improvements. Nonetheless, I went back to the store where I got Vulcan Max. There were a few hamsters there, and I had my eye on a particular one. A chubby little guy with red eyes and tannish fur...an exact replica of Hammy.
He was absolutely adorable.
We didn't go home right away, so we sat down on some couches waiting for my dad apparently checking out The Bay. There were other people sitting on the couch too, so we showed them Hedgehog, my mom played with him for a bit...and then it was straight home for the little guy. I have no idea why I named him Hedgehog but oh well. I love that name. (And this begins a pattern of me naming hamsters after other animals)
I would call Hedgehog my bravest hamster of them all. A hamster who would be a leader. Confident, strong, and independent. If he was not inside my bin, he would be saving others like a hero! Well, that thought was a little too optimistic, but in my mind he is still the Red Ranger of all my hamsters. He did everything a hamster would do, but with passion! He ran on the wheel all the day long, dug and dug and dug in the aspen bedding...ALL DAY LONG! He'd chew and eat anything, run from side-to-side, sleep just about anywhere.
It just reminds me of that lumberjack song. He was an active amazing hamster, and wasn't an idiot either. He had no fear and would leap from my hands, but he would never injure himself like Hammy would. An almost perfect hamster. He was just as bitey as Hammy, but compared to Toto he shouldn't even be called bitey at all. For some reason all this makes Hedgehog the hamster I least remember despite having so many pictures and so much love. (He is the only hamster besides Hammy that my brother gave a nickname to: "Booboo")
He was also my hamster with the most amazing sense of smell. If anybody walked by with food, he would know, come out and follow the trail of food. It was hard to find him sleeping when you were around. Just a bold brilliant hamster Hedgehog was, and one I would always remember as such. He passed away on a very important day. I was about to go somewhere with friends, somewhere important that I cannot remember, and I had to stop and bury him. My mood wasn't very happy for the rest of the day. (I think we went to Richmond Nightmarket for the first time in my life. I got a Sakurako figumate.) Nonetheless, Hedgehog left a mark on me, and would be an excellent hamster to make a statue out of.
ASAKO (and Otter)
So which hamster gets to win the prize as being the dimmest of them all? I'm sorry to say but it's Asako. He wasn't a very smart hamster, but lovable nonetheless. He was also quite a pimp with the two female hamsters he lived with in the tank before I got him. (How amusing) And also my deepest sleeper, my most submissive hamster, and my wimpiest hamster.
I think I just described Italy from Hetalia. O:
Nonetheless, I do not regret getting him. I remember I bought him at Hong Kong Town (AKA Richmond), in an English mall somewhere between all the Asian things. There were three dwarf hamsters left in the tank. Two gray females and a charming white and gray male with red eyes. My mom pushed me to get the white one, but I wanted two hamsters and getting two females would fit. But gray hamsters? Female gray ones? I was rather put off by that. The females were much smaller than the white one though.
I decided in the end to get the white one and decided to get my second one from the same store where I got both Vulcan Max and Hedgehog. (This turned out to be Otter) We also bought a block of salt, since the clerk recommended it for hamsters. (none of my hamsters ever touched the salt. Geez) I brought Asako home along with Otter, and they soon would meet.
I was expecting the same kind of love as Hammy and Hobo, but I suppose since these hamsters were nothing alike and were just about to meet, maybe having such expectations were rather unrealistic. That was exactly what happened. Asako and Otter met, and then slept beside each other. All seemed fine. Then we introduced them to their new very large home, the bin. And Otter soon realized the need to establish dominance in the bin. "I AM THE HAMSTER OF THE BIN! YOU GOTS THAT?"
That I never expected. The SMALLER hamster commanding over the LARGER one? WAT. Asako was surprisingly the weaker one, turning on his back to surrender to Otter each time, or if he felt brave play-fought back and lost every time. (No they did not kill each other or hurt each other. Otter did bite Asako once in their entire time as roommates, but besides that all was fine. No blood was drawn, that is apparently the rule.) And so the rules of the bin was established. Asako must do whatever Otter commands.
Asako was often, probably unwillingly, the pillow for Otter. Otter believed just the same as my first hamsters. My bedding was inadequate. But unlike the adorable love Hammy and Hobo had "Okay, you can sleep on top of me!" Otter just took Asako, no matter what he was doing, as his bed for the day. As such Asako squeaked the most of all my hamsters. Asako also didn't seem to understand how to push things. When he goes through a tube and the tube ends into a wall of the bin, instead of pushing the very light tube down to get out, he just starts chewing the tube to get out, which would take much much longer. Oh Asako.
I named Asako over (obviously) Asakura. Asako apparently means morning sun in Japanese.
OTTER (and Asako)
I had Asako, and now I needed a second hamster since I missed the days of Hammy and Hobo. Realizing that there was a possibility that no males remained in the store where I got Vulcan Max and Toto, I was prepared to just take care of Asako. When we got to that store we saw no dwarf hamsters at all. I ended up asking the clerk if there was any left, and amazingly enough there was.
One single hamster. A male, with its wild fur colourings sleeping inside a plastic tube in a clear tank under a bunch of stuff. No one would have saw him.
He was very small, about the size of Hobo. The other difference was his black eyes. Until now I only had hamsters with red eyes due to my mom's preference for luck. (That didn't exactly turn out well. While caring for Vulcan Max my dad landed in the hospital and had to have some sort of heart valve surgery on his heart. That is not exactly good luck.) So, since Otter was the only one left and I really wanted two hamsters, I got him. And so I landed Otter, naming him after another animal similar to Hedgehog. He was after all the same colour as an Otter, so...
We brought them both home, and as we know Otter showed his utter dominance on Asako. Otter was the serious hamster of all serious hamsters. Digging was SERIOUS BUSINESS. Running on the wheel? SERIOUS BUSINESS. He also groomed himself much more than Asako or any other hamster I remember, so grooming and looking neat and well was also SERIOUS BUSINESS. No one is allowed to bother him as he is doing serious business. He also needed comfort, and what better than a big plump white hamster that is Asako to sleep on? He was intelligent in that regard, knowing where to get the most comfort.
Strangely, Otter rarely bit if at all. I believe he only did once, and even then I could barely feel it. So I suppose Otter is smart enough to know that THE ONE WITH THE BIG HAND gives him food, and angering the ONE WITH THE BIG HAND would not be wise.
Otter was smiliar in size to Hobo, and he had this odd fluff of fur near his eye that made him look like a pirate. So while Hobo is a NINJA, Otter is the PIRATE. The mellow ninja vs. the serious pirate. WHO WOULD WIN? Hobo was fairly submissive and mellow while Otter was dominant, so if Hobo just stood there like he didn't care, Otter would win I suppose (But again, Hobo wouldn't care) and if he did he'd be gone as quick as a fox, as he is a ninja.
Despite all these not-so-positive things I have mentioned between Asako and Otter, they had a very nice relationship. They slept together and generally got along very well. Asako also groomed Otter a lot, so apparently Otter believed grooming was so important that Asako had to groom him too. IT'S ALL SERIOUS BUSINESS FOLKS. He was probably my most independent hamster, like a cat. He would live well alone, but didn't do bad with Asako. If Otter ever met Squirrel...that would not end well.
Otter sadly went first, which is a first among my hamsters, the younger one passing away before the older one. And if I could name which death I felt the most distraught to, it would be Otter's because unlike the others he died in my hands. I had to come home during school to spend his last moments with him. Asako wasn't as...emotional, running over him while he was unmoving in the bin (thus why I removed him from the bin and held him in my hands) Otter only lived for one year, and I think that was the shortest after Toto, but still...Otter lived a much better life than Toto. I can say that. May Otter rest in peace, staying neat and clean forever.
Asako lived for a good four months after Otter and also was older than Otter, so he did have a significantly longer life. I think despite the fact that Asako was kind of stupid, he also felt lonely to suddenly be the only one in the bin. And I tried to play with him quite a lot, not making mistakes I did with Vulcan Max or with Hobo (due to the grief of Hammy I had not played with Hobo as much as I liked, and he must've been rather socially-deprived by the time he died. D:) and although I did not expect Asako to go at that time, he did. Thankfully he was a happy hamster when he went, even though he was alone in the end. I played with him a good bit. May he spend many days annoying Otter in heaven. 8D
SOLO
Ahh, what to say about Solo, my beloved hamster. She's still here, and like all the hamsters before her I do wish she would live forever, but that won't happen. :C At the very moment she is sleeping under two large paper towel tubes, for some reason feeling very comfortable squished under things. If I could call one of my hamsters that Japanese term "Moe" (with an accent'd E that I'm not going to bother trying to find and use) it would be Solo.
First, Solo is a very small hamster. She's smaller than Hammy, VM, Hedgehog, Toto, and Asako, and probably smaller than Hobo and Otter. Secondly, she falls around ALL the time. She doesn't seem to have a sense of balance, and is incredibly clumsy. Third, she's STILL easily scared after all this time (I can still hold her and everything but everytime you return to her bin she thinks you're a lion or something) and the most amusing thing I ever saw her do was when I was dancing badly and she appeared to be dancing with me, circling the bottom of a broken wheel on her back, xDDDD That was incredibly adorable.
Solo loves to sleep in the most unorthodox places and in the most odd positions. Since my bin has wheels, there are four bumps in the bin where my four wheels are. Well she likes sleeping on these bumps, on her side, with her head hanging or something. That looks EXTREMELY uncomfortable but she does it anyway. Solo is also another product of sexing gone wrong, as I had believed she was male at first. That store that had Otter last went out of business soon after, so I actually got the very last dwarf hamster they sold, and a new pet store came in, but didn't have any dwarf hamsters for a long while. So I actually got Solo at the same place I got Asako.
That Hong Kong Town store must give their hamsters drugs or something. Asako and Solo were not the most...normal of hamsters, I must say. (But they also have the PRETTIEST looking hamsters ever. Asako had unique fur pattern and was all white, Solo also looked unique and all the hamsters I saw there looked just damned amazing...besides those gray female hamsters.)
When I went to get Solo, just like the personality I described, she was actually nowhere to be seen inside the tank. I was actually pointing at another hamster that looked like a BEAUTIFUL and lighter version of Hobo with nicer proportions. Then I saw this black and white ball come out of nowhere when the clerk lifted the house thing, and I just immediately squee'd and went "THAT ONE!!!!" That must've been how Solo avoided being sexually harassed by all the male hamsters around her, since she hid and ran away a lot.
What an amazing pick, I should say. We put her in a box and at the time she was actually still unnamed. The first hamster I ever got before I had a name. While we were driving home we watched her a lot, and she fell over a lot. Yes, when we first got her she fell over a lot. Some people said she was young and will get over it over time. As of today she still falls over a lot. I don't know how I ended up calling her Solo, but it probably just came to me. I recall asking some friends over the internet (my clan I believe, I can clearly remember Milk suggesting "Pissball" and "Shitball" and such. Lololol) what to call "him" at the time and as you can tell they weren't too helpful xDDDD.
If Solo is not sleeping on those bumps, she'll still be sleeping on her side! Which is nice, since looking at her white under side is adorable. Ah Solo, you are very personable indeed.
I do hope you live forever.
-
And if it was tl;dr, and frankly I would agree, here's the super short version using Hetalia characters because I am lame:
Hammy: China with laziness
Hobo: ninja!Hong Kong
Vulcan Max: Unnoticable!Ukraine/possibly Canada
Toto: Belarus
Hedgehog: America + extra awesomeness
Asako: N.Italy
Otter: Germany
Solo: Latvia
I WANT A KOREA HAMSTEEEEEERRRRR IT'D BE SO ANNOYING 8DDDDD
First off, a pet, and any pet for that matter, will have different personalities. It is not just in humans. You could have a dumb dog, or a dumb cat, or a dumb fish...well fishes are harder to spot for personalities since all they can really do is swim around, but besides them every animal seems to have an apparent personality.
This includes hamsters.
All eight of my hamsters have unique personalities...unfortunately some of them I remember more of their quirks than others, but they all were awesome hamsters, even the bitey ones. I can remember each time getting that hamster for the first time, and how excited how felt. On the other hand I also remember each of their deaths, where in the cage/bin they died and what they looked like when they did. Those were sad moments, but remembering them is good.
So I figure keeping a record of what my hamsters acted like and were like in a nice journal post would be useful, as well as if anyone else is curious about them. :3
HAMMY (and Hobo)
Hammy was my very first hamster. For a first hamster he was a very standard hamster. Even so, he still had his own wonderful personality. Before I got Hammy he lived with another hamster, his brother named Squirrel. Squirrel was a very aggressive hamster, and never got along with Hammy. Squirrel always attacked Hammy and so they had to be separated. Interestingly enough Hammy was the bigger hamster, and my family friend's son decided to keep Squirrel because he was smaller, thus cuter.
At first, I felt disappointed because I wanted Squirrel too, since it was cuter, but then I realized it was also bitier, and in the long run, getting Hammy was something I didn't regret whatsoever.
Hammy loved food, and ate everything. Once I accidentally dropped a piece of coffee candy on the ground, and it just happened to land in front of him. He ate it. This did not kill him or anything, and he lived for pretty much another year or two after. In fact, Hammy was my longest-living hamster. He was the laziest of all my hamsters as well, so it was interesting how he didn't get much exercise yet outlived all my hamsters afterwards. 2 and a half years is a really long life for him. I was also very young and foolish then, and so mishandled Hammy from time-to-time, so it was really interesting that he lived the longest of all my hamsters.
It was not an easy task to have the record of longest living hamster I owned either. Since I was foolish and was friends with a kid who was four years younger than me, and also as foolish, we dropped our hamsters at times. Most of the time they landed on their feet and were fine, but Hammy happened to fall on his back...on the kitchen floor. He did not move. There was even blood. My mom saved the day and blew dry him (he got wet) while he was not moving. As children we were horrified then, but Hammy pulled through.
Stupidly enough, it happened again. This time on my bedroom floor which had carpet, but probably the thinnest carpet of the entire house. He also stopped moving, but came through as well. Hammy was a warrior. It seems like he's not afraid of heights since he also liked jumping out of my hands no matter how far from the ground my hands were. Hammy was a perilous hamster.
Still not convinced? At the later stages of his long long life, he suffered a stroke. We were about to go out for dinner and saw he was not moving. My mom said he'd be fine, and put him next to the food bowl, so whenever he got out of the trance he would go straight for food or something. When we got home he ran on the wheel over and over and was extremely hyper. Hammy was still alive and still kicking.
Sadly, Hammy would not live forever, and in the summer of '04, passed away in his cage in late July. His eyes were still open too, so it was quite freaky for me. We buried him in our garden, and there he still rests today. He was extremely hyper the night before though, but strangely enough a lot of my hamsters were hyper before they passed on...
HOBO (and Hammy)
Hobo was Hammy's younger brother. Or nephew. Or possibly son or grandson or cousin. I wouldn't know for sure. All I know is that he lived in the same cage as Hammy and the people who had the two had many many hamsters, all from unexpected pregnancies with hamsters of different sexes in the same cage. They weren't very responsible owners, since I heard months after getting Hammy and Hobo that they forgot to feed them and they all died. May these hamsters rest in peace.
Hobo was pretty much the exact opposite of Squirrel. He was a mellow hamster. If you could call a hamster a hippie, Hobo would be it. (And interestingly I named him Hobo) Hobo never bit once in his entire life, and he lived quite long. Only Hammy surpasses him in the length of lifespan, as Hobo lived to be over two years. He and Hammy lived very peacefully together. They both believed my bedding was inadaquate, and thus slept on each other quite often. Hobo often slept on the bigger Hammy, but sometimes Hammy would sleep on Hobo, which was quite amusing when we saw that. A large hamster on a rather small hamster. Hobo never did mind.
Although Hammy was lazy, Hobo was not as much, but I wouldn't call him active either. The two would be my laziest hamsters, but I wouldn't call Hobo that lazy. He was in the middle of the pack, very mellow and put no passion in either thing. He just took them both moderately. Sleep, eat, wheel. Hobo also didn't believe in using his teeth like traditional hamsters. He never chewed on anything and only used his claws to dig and such. He didn't even break open sunflower seeds with his teeth, and I had to do so for him. Perhaps his teeth were broken, thus never using it, but broken teeth can lead to death quite quickly, and Hobo lived very long, so I doubt it so.
Despite all this, Hobo will be forever remembered as my most dastardly clever hamster. He was an amazing escape artist. Three times in his life he escaped, and he would drag Hammy with him. We always found Hammy in the kitchen, but Hobo would take much longer to find, and he was much more unpredictable. Hobo was a mellow ninja. How many hamsters do you know that were mellow ninjas?
Unfortunately his wit would not lead him to immortality, as Hobo also passed away only two and a half weeks after Hammy. It is always sad when a hamster dies alone, as I knew Hobo missed Hammy very much after his death. Hobo also showed old age, finding it difficult to walk then. I will remember Hobo greatly as my tamest hamster, and my smartest.
VULCAN MAX
This is not a picture of Vulcan Max, rather of what she looked like (the white one).
At this point in my life I had strongly believed the fact that male hamsters were much easier to tame than female. I still somewhat believe that, but Solo has especially made that belief far more mild. So when I wanted another hamster after my wonderful experience with the great hamsters Hammy and Hobo, I definitely wanted a male. This time, since that so-called breeder let all their hamsters starve, we would need to find another source for hamsters. And that was so, in a pet shop.
I was soon about to experience the inexperience of pet store clerks.
I asked for a male. My mom saw two white hamsters in a cage FILLED with small hamster pups, running all over the place, climbing the bars, basically being incredibly wild and crazy. It was probably the cutest sight in my life. Apparently chinese people love the colour red (thus all my hamsters having red eyes all the way until Otter) and the colour white. So a white hamster with red eyes was a sign of AMAZING LUCK to my mom. Also she found them the cutest. The two white hamsters were apparently a male and a female, and the clerk went to get the male.
Unbeknownst to me and probably the store clerk as well, I recieved the female. I named "him" Vulcan Max, believing she to be male at the time after Rei's beyblade and Max. I wasn't very creative then, but Hammy isn't creative either. (Despite the name being my brother's, always calling him "HammyHamHam" so we called him Hammy for short) (I also had frogs named Fred and Frank, so yeah...)
Vulcan Max was a very shy hamster at first, like many hamsters you first get. She had the cutest pink nose, and loved to chew everything. I can still remember her hiding under the wheel constantly, just scared of me.
That is why it is so unfortunate and tragic that I do not have a picture of her. At all. At that time we had an oldstyle camera, not an expensive digital one that was getting more popular then. I took many pictures of her, but when we went to process our film and get the pictures, apparently the battery died, and took all the pictures with it. Since film was expensive and my mom didn't like me "wasting" film on hamsters instead of people, I put off taking another photo of her. Unfortunately she died before I could take one.
She passed away when I was at school, my brother finding her. The only hamster I did not find dead. My brother did not have the sense to remove her body when I got home though. >_> Of all my hamsters however, it looked like she had the most graphic death? She was dead with her mouth gaping open and her eyes open. It was a frightening sight. I believe she choked to death, so it was very upsetting finding her like that.
I think of all my hamsters I feel the most guilty for Vulcanmax. She was my first hamster who lived alone. I did not think I spent enough time with her. I have no pictures of her. And she died suddenly and tragically. I hope she is living a wonderful afterlife right now because if I could go back in time I would change the most about Vulcan Max.
My parents also have this ill-led thought that she was a mean bitey hamster too. What a misunderstood hamster D:< I am sorry, Vulcan Max.
TOTO
Speaking of mean bitey hamsters...
Here's a legitimate mean bitey hamster. Perhaps she wasn't mean, just bitey. Maybe she thought everything that could move must be bitten or something. I wouldn't know what was in her head then, but she was a bit more unique in that regard. I also have no idea why I called her Toto when I knew she was a female at start. I just loved that name a lot and wanted to call her Toto, ah well.
Unlike Hammy and Hobo, Toto came from a store. Unlike Vulcan Max, Toto came from a big chain store, ala Pet Cetera, the biggest pet store in Canada. Ever since Toto I never got another pet from that store. Their holding cells, I mean tanks for the hamsters were very, very small. It was a sad sight to see. Toto was already an adult when I got her, and the only hamster I got as an adult besides her was Hammy. (And look how well that ended up! Longest-living hamster!)
I suppose getting a hamster as an adult isn't what made Hammy live long, since Toto barely made it to three months after I got her. That was especially sad, a short-lived life...perhaps long if she was already old when I got her. I wouldn't know. It was night-time when I buried her, and raining. That must've been a sign or something. All my other hamsters were buried in the day with the exception of Asako (and it was nice and clear out then). She had A LOT of stuff in her bin then, like boxes and tubes and everything. So I don't think she was ever bored.
Even then her favourite thing was the wheel. That wheel went on forever, the squeaking sound annoying my parents constantly all night. Rest in peace Toto because you didn't really get any in your life.
HEDGEHOG
After the Toto experience, I was determined to get a male since the success of Hammy and Hobo. I was less foolish now, even though my less-foolishness didn't seem to prolong my last two hamsters' lives. They didn't sleep on pine-bedding, but in aspen. They weren't lazing in my tiny cage, but in a gigantic bin. And other such improvements. Nonetheless, I went back to the store where I got Vulcan Max. There were a few hamsters there, and I had my eye on a particular one. A chubby little guy with red eyes and tannish fur...an exact replica of Hammy.
He was absolutely adorable.
We didn't go home right away, so we sat down on some couches waiting for my dad apparently checking out The Bay. There were other people sitting on the couch too, so we showed them Hedgehog, my mom played with him for a bit...and then it was straight home for the little guy. I have no idea why I named him Hedgehog but oh well. I love that name. (And this begins a pattern of me naming hamsters after other animals)
I would call Hedgehog my bravest hamster of them all. A hamster who would be a leader. Confident, strong, and independent. If he was not inside my bin, he would be saving others like a hero! Well, that thought was a little too optimistic, but in my mind he is still the Red Ranger of all my hamsters. He did everything a hamster would do, but with passion! He ran on the wheel all the day long, dug and dug and dug in the aspen bedding...ALL DAY LONG! He'd chew and eat anything, run from side-to-side, sleep just about anywhere.
It just reminds me of that lumberjack song. He was an active amazing hamster, and wasn't an idiot either. He had no fear and would leap from my hands, but he would never injure himself like Hammy would. An almost perfect hamster. He was just as bitey as Hammy, but compared to Toto he shouldn't even be called bitey at all. For some reason all this makes Hedgehog the hamster I least remember despite having so many pictures and so much love. (He is the only hamster besides Hammy that my brother gave a nickname to: "Booboo")
He was also my hamster with the most amazing sense of smell. If anybody walked by with food, he would know, come out and follow the trail of food. It was hard to find him sleeping when you were around. Just a bold brilliant hamster Hedgehog was, and one I would always remember as such. He passed away on a very important day. I was about to go somewhere with friends, somewhere important that I cannot remember, and I had to stop and bury him. My mood wasn't very happy for the rest of the day. (I think we went to Richmond Nightmarket for the first time in my life. I got a Sakurako figumate.) Nonetheless, Hedgehog left a mark on me, and would be an excellent hamster to make a statue out of.
ASAKO (and Otter)
So which hamster gets to win the prize as being the dimmest of them all? I'm sorry to say but it's Asako. He wasn't a very smart hamster, but lovable nonetheless. He was also quite a pimp with the two female hamsters he lived with in the tank before I got him. (How amusing) And also my deepest sleeper, my most submissive hamster, and my wimpiest hamster.
I think I just described Italy from Hetalia. O:
Nonetheless, I do not regret getting him. I remember I bought him at Hong Kong Town (AKA Richmond), in an English mall somewhere between all the Asian things. There were three dwarf hamsters left in the tank. Two gray females and a charming white and gray male with red eyes. My mom pushed me to get the white one, but I wanted two hamsters and getting two females would fit. But gray hamsters? Female gray ones? I was rather put off by that. The females were much smaller than the white one though.
I decided in the end to get the white one and decided to get my second one from the same store where I got both Vulcan Max and Hedgehog. (This turned out to be Otter) We also bought a block of salt, since the clerk recommended it for hamsters. (none of my hamsters ever touched the salt. Geez) I brought Asako home along with Otter, and they soon would meet.
I was expecting the same kind of love as Hammy and Hobo, but I suppose since these hamsters were nothing alike and were just about to meet, maybe having such expectations were rather unrealistic. That was exactly what happened. Asako and Otter met, and then slept beside each other. All seemed fine. Then we introduced them to their new very large home, the bin. And Otter soon realized the need to establish dominance in the bin. "I AM THE HAMSTER OF THE BIN! YOU GOTS THAT?"
That I never expected. The SMALLER hamster commanding over the LARGER one? WAT. Asako was surprisingly the weaker one, turning on his back to surrender to Otter each time, or if he felt brave play-fought back and lost every time. (No they did not kill each other or hurt each other. Otter did bite Asako once in their entire time as roommates, but besides that all was fine. No blood was drawn, that is apparently the rule.) And so the rules of the bin was established. Asako must do whatever Otter commands.
Asako was often, probably unwillingly, the pillow for Otter. Otter believed just the same as my first hamsters. My bedding was inadequate. But unlike the adorable love Hammy and Hobo had "Okay, you can sleep on top of me!" Otter just took Asako, no matter what he was doing, as his bed for the day. As such Asako squeaked the most of all my hamsters. Asako also didn't seem to understand how to push things. When he goes through a tube and the tube ends into a wall of the bin, instead of pushing the very light tube down to get out, he just starts chewing the tube to get out, which would take much much longer. Oh Asako.
I named Asako over (obviously) Asakura. Asako apparently means morning sun in Japanese.
OTTER (and Asako)
I had Asako, and now I needed a second hamster since I missed the days of Hammy and Hobo. Realizing that there was a possibility that no males remained in the store where I got Vulcan Max and Toto, I was prepared to just take care of Asako. When we got to that store we saw no dwarf hamsters at all. I ended up asking the clerk if there was any left, and amazingly enough there was.
One single hamster. A male, with its wild fur colourings sleeping inside a plastic tube in a clear tank under a bunch of stuff. No one would have saw him.
He was very small, about the size of Hobo. The other difference was his black eyes. Until now I only had hamsters with red eyes due to my mom's preference for luck. (That didn't exactly turn out well. While caring for Vulcan Max my dad landed in the hospital and had to have some sort of heart valve surgery on his heart. That is not exactly good luck.) So, since Otter was the only one left and I really wanted two hamsters, I got him. And so I landed Otter, naming him after another animal similar to Hedgehog. He was after all the same colour as an Otter, so...
We brought them both home, and as we know Otter showed his utter dominance on Asako. Otter was the serious hamster of all serious hamsters. Digging was SERIOUS BUSINESS. Running on the wheel? SERIOUS BUSINESS. He also groomed himself much more than Asako or any other hamster I remember, so grooming and looking neat and well was also SERIOUS BUSINESS. No one is allowed to bother him as he is doing serious business. He also needed comfort, and what better than a big plump white hamster that is Asako to sleep on? He was intelligent in that regard, knowing where to get the most comfort.
Strangely, Otter rarely bit if at all. I believe he only did once, and even then I could barely feel it. So I suppose Otter is smart enough to know that THE ONE WITH THE BIG HAND gives him food, and angering the ONE WITH THE BIG HAND would not be wise.
Otter was smiliar in size to Hobo, and he had this odd fluff of fur near his eye that made him look like a pirate. So while Hobo is a NINJA, Otter is the PIRATE. The mellow ninja vs. the serious pirate. WHO WOULD WIN? Hobo was fairly submissive and mellow while Otter was dominant, so if Hobo just stood there like he didn't care, Otter would win I suppose (But again, Hobo wouldn't care) and if he did he'd be gone as quick as a fox, as he is a ninja.
Despite all these not-so-positive things I have mentioned between Asako and Otter, they had a very nice relationship. They slept together and generally got along very well. Asako also groomed Otter a lot, so apparently Otter believed grooming was so important that Asako had to groom him too. IT'S ALL SERIOUS BUSINESS FOLKS. He was probably my most independent hamster, like a cat. He would live well alone, but didn't do bad with Asako. If Otter ever met Squirrel...that would not end well.
Otter sadly went first, which is a first among my hamsters, the younger one passing away before the older one. And if I could name which death I felt the most distraught to, it would be Otter's because unlike the others he died in my hands. I had to come home during school to spend his last moments with him. Asako wasn't as...emotional, running over him while he was unmoving in the bin (thus why I removed him from the bin and held him in my hands) Otter only lived for one year, and I think that was the shortest after Toto, but still...Otter lived a much better life than Toto. I can say that. May Otter rest in peace, staying neat and clean forever.
Asako lived for a good four months after Otter and also was older than Otter, so he did have a significantly longer life. I think despite the fact that Asako was kind of stupid, he also felt lonely to suddenly be the only one in the bin. And I tried to play with him quite a lot, not making mistakes I did with Vulcan Max or with Hobo (due to the grief of Hammy I had not played with Hobo as much as I liked, and he must've been rather socially-deprived by the time he died. D:) and although I did not expect Asako to go at that time, he did. Thankfully he was a happy hamster when he went, even though he was alone in the end. I played with him a good bit. May he spend many days annoying Otter in heaven. 8D
SOLO
Ahh, what to say about Solo, my beloved hamster. She's still here, and like all the hamsters before her I do wish she would live forever, but that won't happen. :C At the very moment she is sleeping under two large paper towel tubes, for some reason feeling very comfortable squished under things. If I could call one of my hamsters that Japanese term "Moe" (with an accent'd E that I'm not going to bother trying to find and use) it would be Solo.
First, Solo is a very small hamster. She's smaller than Hammy, VM, Hedgehog, Toto, and Asako, and probably smaller than Hobo and Otter. Secondly, she falls around ALL the time. She doesn't seem to have a sense of balance, and is incredibly clumsy. Third, she's STILL easily scared after all this time (I can still hold her and everything but everytime you return to her bin she thinks you're a lion or something) and the most amusing thing I ever saw her do was when I was dancing badly and she appeared to be dancing with me, circling the bottom of a broken wheel on her back, xDDDD That was incredibly adorable.
Solo loves to sleep in the most unorthodox places and in the most odd positions. Since my bin has wheels, there are four bumps in the bin where my four wheels are. Well she likes sleeping on these bumps, on her side, with her head hanging or something. That looks EXTREMELY uncomfortable but she does it anyway. Solo is also another product of sexing gone wrong, as I had believed she was male at first. That store that had Otter last went out of business soon after, so I actually got the very last dwarf hamster they sold, and a new pet store came in, but didn't have any dwarf hamsters for a long while. So I actually got Solo at the same place I got Asako.
That Hong Kong Town store must give their hamsters drugs or something. Asako and Solo were not the most...normal of hamsters, I must say. (But they also have the PRETTIEST looking hamsters ever. Asako had unique fur pattern and was all white, Solo also looked unique and all the hamsters I saw there looked just damned amazing...besides those gray female hamsters.)
When I went to get Solo, just like the personality I described, she was actually nowhere to be seen inside the tank. I was actually pointing at another hamster that looked like a BEAUTIFUL and lighter version of Hobo with nicer proportions. Then I saw this black and white ball come out of nowhere when the clerk lifted the house thing, and I just immediately squee'd and went "THAT ONE!!!!" That must've been how Solo avoided being sexually harassed by all the male hamsters around her, since she hid and ran away a lot.
What an amazing pick, I should say. We put her in a box and at the time she was actually still unnamed. The first hamster I ever got before I had a name. While we were driving home we watched her a lot, and she fell over a lot. Yes, when we first got her she fell over a lot. Some people said she was young and will get over it over time. As of today she still falls over a lot. I don't know how I ended up calling her Solo, but it probably just came to me. I recall asking some friends over the internet (my clan I believe, I can clearly remember Milk suggesting "Pissball" and "Shitball" and such. Lololol) what to call "him" at the time and as you can tell they weren't too helpful xDDDD.
If Solo is not sleeping on those bumps, she'll still be sleeping on her side! Which is nice, since looking at her white under side is adorable. Ah Solo, you are very personable indeed.
I do hope you live forever.
-
And if it was tl;dr, and frankly I would agree, here's the super short version using Hetalia characters because I am lame:
Hammy: China with laziness
Hobo: ninja!Hong Kong
Vulcan Max: Unnoticable!Ukraine/possibly Canada
Toto: Belarus
Hedgehog: America + extra awesomeness
Asako: N.Italy
Otter: Germany
Solo: Latvia
I WANT A KOREA HAMSTEEEEEERRRRR IT'D BE SO ANNOYING 8DDDDD
