Lucille our roborovski hamster died last week. She was nearly 2.5 years old which is very good in hamster years especially considering she nearly died of cancer at 9 months of age. The vet said back then that the tumour would likely return and it did about a month ago. We opted not to put her through another operation because it would have been too much for her given her age. To be honest I’m amazed she lived for as long as she did. When she made it to the first Christmas after her surgery I was impressed but to get a whole extra year and more on top of that is very good.
She was also noticeably older and slower. She still ran on her wheel briefly most days but looked quite arthritic and was mostly blind. I knew she was going to die as the day before I found her she was sleeping out in the open which was unusual. I found her the next day in her sand bath. But she had a good life. I gave her all her favourite foods in the final months and she trusted us at the end, happily taking sunflower seeds from my hands, something she would never have done when we first got her.
I took this video of her in March.
You would think we’re now hamster-less given we lost Lucille and Angelina in fairly quick succession but it seems there are always little souls looking for homes. We recently adopted another two robos: George and Sonic. Such is the nature of pet hamsters that people buy them, only to get bored after a few months, creating a permanent flow of these poor little creatures needing homes. It speaks volumes about our throw-away society and how all too often, other animals pay the price for our awfulness as a species. It does get me down, but we will do our best for George and Sonic. As with most robos, they’re very skittish around us – Lucille was the same. But I did manage to get this cute photo of Sonic recently:
I don’t know how old they are unfortunately.
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