Goodbye, Poofy

Poofy, our last hamster, passed away this afternoon. Mom found him motionless outside his toilet. His 2 siblings, Peanut and Pebble, left us last year. For the past few months, Poofy lost most of his fur and walk in an awkward manner but he would still grab bread, corn and beansprout from us.

I'm not sure if we will be keeping any more hamsters since we are already quite busy with the cats. The hamsters have given me good memories and through them, I have learnt to be a more responsible person and also start this journey of loving creatures great and small (except cockroaches and mosquitoes).

Goodbye, Rocky, Trini and Peanut

We haven't seen Rocky the long-haired black and white cat (abandoned by a Malay family) for the past few weeks and Mom learnt from an auntie that she saw Rocky being taken away by SPCA as he had an injured paw. It seems like the Malay owner had been feeding him and his nephew, Oreo and didn't do anything to help his injured paw, so someone decided to call the SPCA to help him.

Trini, the female calico cat who usually hung around my block's void deck has also disappeared mysteriously when I was away in Beijing. I did ask my Town Council officer who said he noticed that the old "sick" cat (our Rambo) has disappeared and he would let the complainant(s) know of the action being taken to remove the cat. He said he didn't remove any cats from my area so far. Mom and I hope Trini has been adopted by someone since she is a friendly cat. I have also called AVA to see if there were any cats taken from my area and the AVA officer said there were none.

First Bush disappeared, then Bony died, I have to send Rambo to a cattery, Rocky taken to SPCA and Trini has disappeared. I hope the rest of the cats in my area will remain safe.

This afternoon, I found Peanut (the hamster)'s cold body in his house. He hasn't been peeing and pooing well and also not eating well. Mom and I knew it was a matter of time before he left us. His sis, Pebble, did a few months. Now the remaining hamster, their brother, Poofy is the lone survivor after more than 2 years with us. He is losing some fur - clearly a sign of ageing. He will probably be the last hamster we are keeping since I don't think we will be adopting any more. I think the cats have been making us busy :)

The remaining hamsters

With their sister, Pebble gone, the 2 brothers, Poofy and Peanut are still going strong. They should be at least 3 years old. Other than looking leaner with less fur, the 2 guys still look great :)

Goodbye, Pebble

Pebble, our pet female Syrian hamster passed away yesterday. She could have been 3 years old or older. We knew her days were numbered when she was losing most of her fur, had soft stools, turned blind and in her last few days, she didn't eat much. Her 2 brothers, Peanut and Poofy are still as active as ever.

Being used/hardened to the passing of more than 30 pet hamsters over the past 16 years, I was still a bit teary-eyed when I held Pebble's hardened cold body in my hands as Mom and I wrapped her in tissue paper and said our goodbyes.

Peanut asleep and awake

When I was cleaning the hamsters' houses on Mon, I caught Peanut sleeping soundly.


Of course, the sounds of my camera woke him up.

Goodbye, Pip

Pip left us on Thurs (Deepavali) afternoon. He is more than 2 years old and has been very active even before the day of his death.

I held him in my palm that morning when Mom and I realised he might leave us anytime soon.

Pip getting old

Old age comes to hamsters quite quickly as they have a short lifespan of 2 to 3 years. Pip shows signs of ageing with his teary right eye, loss of weight and balding and less appetite. It will be a matter of time before we will lose her.

Pebble the Syrian hamster

Of the 4 hamsters we have, Pebble is the only girl, the most good looking and haughty hamster. She used to run away and made it difficult for me to hold her in my palms. Now she seems a little more tame and I can quickly grab her and hold her for a short while.

She also likes to run inside the exercise ball while the other hamsters may choose to just rest in their houses.

My furry companions at home

Pip is not as active as before but he will still squeak loudly when we hold him in our hands and then starts licking us and then wriggling to tell us to put him down.

It's hard to take nice photos of Poofy as he is very fidgety and nervous. So I am very happy to get some good shots of him last night.


Pebble, the only hamster girl is very active and moves very fast. Of all the 4 hamsters, she clearly dislikes us touching her. We used to refrain from touching her as she was quite fierce. But I believe that hamsters will mellow with age and recently, I just quickly grabbed in my hands and she would struggle but she doesn't bite and would tolerate me handling her for a short while before nipping my fingers a little to tell me time's up :)

Peanut used to be just walked in our hands to be carried. But nowadays, he has become more fidgety and doesn't seem to enjoy me holding him.


And what was Angel doing while I was being the hamsters' photographer and cleaner? She was under the table, lazing the chairs. When I was near her, her paw would try to hit me. Hee.


Angel is starting to lose her kitty look but I love her all the same. She is especially adorable when she's purring and wants to be hugged and stroked.

I tried to take photos of her but she's quite attracted to the camera and here she was meowing away while standing on my chest. Luckily she's light and I'm not very ticklish.

I wanted a photo of her and me but it's not as easy as I thought.

I will try again the next time :) or just get sis to take a photo of us when she's at home.

Pip in cute sleeping pose

Pip, our baby :)

So chubby and adorable when she sleeps.

Featuring a few of my cutie pies

Pip Squeak as Sis calls Pip because Pip will squeak when we disturb her while she's sleeping. Nowadays, she will also be squeaking when she grooms herself occasionally. Sounds like the squeak toy :)

She looks so adorable asleep

and while looking dazed after her beauty sleep.


Poofy as usual was being his paranoid self and starting moving house when we started to clean his sleeping quarters of his poo poo under the wooden bridge. So funny.

Hamsters and Cats

While still in my pyjamas, I walked into the balcony and let the 3 syrian hamsters run around my feet in the exercise balls while I took photos of them. The photos didn't turn out very clear as they were very active and ran quite fast in the balls :)

I am on time off this morning as my mission is to send White Cat for sterilisation. I was going to give up when I didn't see White Cat in the park and in the carpark. Then I saw him stretching near a lorry and made some noise to ask him to follow me. I led him to the edge of the park and put some dry cat food in the carrier. He trustingly went in and I closed the carrier door. He was really heavy and I carried him and the carrier into the cab to the Pet Clinic. I am leaving him overnight @ the clinic and can only collect him between 1 to 5pm tomorrow.

Peanut on me and the sofa

I will normally start Peanut's exploration by letting him walk on my hands, then my stomach, legs before putting him on the sofa. He would be sticking his head behind the cushion. After a few minutes, I will put him back into his house as he will get a bit wild :)

Pip, the sleepy head

Relaxing morning

My body clock woke me up @ 7.15am. I did some light exercises by working with my swiss ball and practise my basic taiji strokes. 2 slices of Sunshine wheat bran bread with margarine and toasted wheatgerm, a small piece of mum's raisin coffee butter cake and half an orange formed my hearty breakfast. After reading the Straits Times, I checked my emails, surfed the net about FIV and worked a bit on my blog.

Later, I'm going to give a teaspoon of Quaker's Oatmeal with milk to Ebon as he has been losing a bit of weight. I adopted Ebon from a friend in May 2003. He was already an adult then and should be around 3 years old now. Mum fed him that oatmeal concoction some time back and it helped to fatten him up but Mum stopped after a while. So I'm going to continue with that treat :) Below is a photo of Ebon taken not too long ago. So adorable, right?

I will be meeting my 3 secondary school girl friends and treating them to dim sum lunch @ Wah Lok Cantonese Restaurant @ Carlton Hotel. (This explains why I feel the need to exercise this morning.) We have this tradition of birthday girl treating the rest to a meal and the rest in turn buy her a gift that she wants. I still haven't thought of what I want. One idea is to ask them to buy me hamster food and cat treats but they may think I'm mad. Haha.

Ruth

Zzzzzzz


What's that clicking sound?


I must check that out!


Slowly, carefully


I mustn't be detected by my enemies.


What's that weird silver object hovering over my food tray?


Phew! It's just my beloved friend taking photos of me :)

Frisky and Ebon

For the past few weeks, we have noticed a stray cat balding with tufts of fur. I then emailed Dawn of Cat Welfare Society and she suggested some vets nearby for me to bring the cat for checkup. Yesterday, I went down to Pet Lovers @ Shaw Centre to buy a cat carrier and some cat food, so that I could bring the cat to the vet today.

Last night I had tennis lessons with 2 other friends. I have quite bad ball sense, so most of the time I would miss the ball but at least I am getting familarised with forehand and the basic techniques. I managed to spot the cat outside the shop at the void deck of my block cleaning herself when the shop uncle was closing his shop. I asked him about the cat and he said he has brought her to the vet in Sembawang and the medicine is finishing soon. She still sheds fur but eats well. Uncle doesn't know what the problem is. Apparently this cat used to be quite pretty. I suspect she is the cat that my sis and I called Frisky and we have wondered why she has disappeared.

I got a shock when I carried Ebon, my old syrian hamster and saw that he has some kind of cataract in both eyes. I have not noticed that when I carried her a few days ago but may have mistake that for glint in eyes. This morning when I looked again, the cataract is not there anymore. Then I have a theory that the cataracts can only be seen at night and in the dark. And true enough when I brought Ebon to the dark storeroomwith Mum shining a torchlight, I could see the cataracts. But long-sighted Mum said I am seeing things and want me to monitor and ask Dad and sis to see tonight. Anyway, I shall bring Frisky to Namly Clinic in the afternoon, so that I could ask Dr Ling about Ebon too. Dr Ling has successfully operated on my late syrian hamster to remove a tumour. I hope I can find Frisky at the void deck later.