Ode to Popcorn. Rest in Peace, Little One.
Last night I had to put Popcorn, my beloved hamster, to sleep. He had an abdominal mass and the vet felt he couldn’t be saved. I cried and cried, but was embarrassed to cry over a hamster. But he wasn’t just a hamster. He was my friend. He had all kinds of funny habits. Here are some:
1. When he was ready to wake up and be held, he’d climb on top of his wooden house and assume his boxer stance. He’d stare out at the bars until someone noticed him. Then I’d scoop him up and he’d crawl into a special position in my cupped hand and that’s when I’d give him lots of kisses. And he’d close his eyes while I did so.
2. When I put him down on the table and scratched his back, he’d stand still to get maximum scratching. He loved having his back scratched.
3. If he was put on the kitchen counter, he’d run straight behind the bread basket, where he’d thrown himself onto his back and wriggle and flip his body all around, like a little otter. He liked it even better if you shook the basket while he did this.
4. If he was put on a different part of the kitchen counter, he’d run straight behind the TV, and if someone tickled him with the remote, he’d turn on his back, thrust his legs into the air, and delightedly wiggle around. Sometimes he’d just stand there and look for the remote, in case we forgot.
5. He loved yogurt chips, green beans, carrots, lettuce, mini croissants, pear, mealworms and just about anything else you offered. He often crammed his cheek pouches full of food and then he’d deposit it in different places in his cage, as hamsters do. Once he put the entirety of his bedding in his face, and I had to pull it out. He was mad at me.
6. He was very particular about having at least a few pieces of food in his wheel. He liked to run in his wheel with food pellets in there. If I took the food out to stop the incessant clicking sound, he’d get out, find a pellet, and put it back in. So there.
7. No matter the time of day or how tired he was, if he heard the crinkle of a bag, he’d stumble out of his little wooden house with his eyes half-shut, and beg for food, still asleep. Before his illness, he was quite a little fatty.
8. Sometimes he escaped and ran under the washer, where there’d be lots of clawing and scratching noises. Then he’d smell some pear, and come out.
9. He ran like the devil in his ball, but if he wanted to come out, he’d follow me around and then sit on my feet till I took him out.
10. He jumped off tables, countertops, beds, pillows — he was fearless and unbreakable. Until last night. I’ll miss him.
liz | 10:05 AM | cute fix
Cute Fix: Sugar Gliders Grooming
I guarantee the one on the left is a boy. They’re placid. The girls are crazy. One of my boys is
liz | 4:17 PM | cute fix
Catching Up With Cute Fixes
Watch this one with the sound off:
liz | 2:08 PM | cute fix
Limping Along, I Need a Cute Fix
And the web obliges:
If you know anything about bunny body language, this is one happy little lop. And the music just makes it. Ah, j’aime Charles Trenet.
liz | 12:53 PM | cute fix
Cute Fix: Farm Animals
Becca (who doesn’t post here very much anyway) mentioned yesterday that I never do Cute Fixes with farm animals. So true! So she sent me cute cows, and I’m posting this cute pig I’m in love with.
Kingsford Goes to the Beach – video powered by Metacafe
liz | 11:07 AM | cute fix
Should You Be Allowed to Take Comfort Animals With You?
Utah, always quirky, is having some trouble with its legislation regarding animals that serve therapeutic purposes. From the Salt Lake Tribune:
Sen. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem, and several supporters say they are not against the animals, which have a soothing affect on owners who may suffer from emotional or psychological difficulties.
But Dayton says the law needs to be rewritten to differentiate between those animals and service animals such as guide dogs, which have unique training and certification that therapeutic animals may not.
“If you have a note from a marriage counselor that says you need to have a cat with you because you’re so stressed not having a companion — that meets the [current] requirement,” Dayton said.
…
For Chyrisse Haydon of Clearfield, an 8-year-old Chihuahua-poodle mix named Gizzmo soothes her anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, which she suffers as a result of her experiences during the war in Rhodesia decades ago.“If I don’t have him with me, I don’t leave my house,” she said.
But critics complained Tuesday about the lack of specifics on shots and training and the vagueness of the law.
At Brigham Young University, the University Accessibility Center receives about one therapy animal request per month, and most are approved.
“So long as a mental health practitioner says it would be helpful, we’re pretty much bound by that,” said director Michael Brooks.
It’s an interesting debate with all kinds of serious implications, yet I found two passages very personally meaningful:
1. “Legislators had laughed on hearing that one college student asked to bring his sugar glider, an animal that looks like a flying squirrel, to campus.”
Okay, hello? They don’t look like flying squirrels! You’re talking about my Champ, Buster and Rosie, so watch it. Does this sweet face, peeking out from a robe, look like a menacing flying squirrel? Please.
2. “Most of the requests involve dogs and cats, although hamsters have joined the list.” And what’s wrong with that? Here’s a photo of my hamster, Popcorn, thinking: Can I come with you to work? Please?
liz | 11:37 AM | alternative treatments, cute fix
Cute Fix: Otter Mail Carrier
Thanks to Erin for sending this along so we can start the day right. From the BBC comes a report of a mailman who found an abandoned otter pup:
Mr Wilson said the otter had come from the nearby Gala Water and “looked terrified from the noise of the cars and would soon have been hit”.
“I popped her into the mailbag I had in the car and carried on up the A7 and just kept hearing little squeaks and sucking noises to imply she was hungry,” he said.
“I stopped at Tesco at Dalkeith and bought some kitten milk and fed it through the tube of a ballpoint pen.
“She seemed happy enough and during our journey she kept crawling up my neck looking for more warmth.”
Jesus Christ. Am I made of steel? Sucking noises? Warmth-searching? I want to die for this little otter, I really do. As they’d say on Cute Overload, I’ve just died from the Qute.
Otter tours Scotland in postbag
liz | 11:56 AM | cute fix
Cute Fix: For Those With Superior Cute Powers
Yes, folks, that’s rights: This is nine-plus minutes of cute. Can you take it? My eyes and ears were bleeding at the end. (Ears bleeding due to the music, which is truly terrible.)
liz | 3:42 PM | cute fix
