Farewell Little Chubby

My son's Windows Live Messenger popped up on my office PC screen this morning.

It was an opportune time to ask him to remind his mother to give Chubby her medication this morning. Chubby was our pet hamster, adopted from my son's class project on responsibility.

I guess some children are not as responsible as we hoped they would be.

My son's classmate who owned the hamster decided to abandon her, as her parent could afford the time to care for the pet. All this at the expense of a living thing?! This is outrageous! A teacher actually initiated such a project without fully thinking through the implications.

Owning a pet is a life-long responsibility of the owner. For as long as the pet is alive, the owner has to be responsibility to care for it as best as her or she can.

A pet is definitely not a toy to discard or put aside when the novelty has subsided. It has to be loved and cared for. The Almighty's creation that we brought into our home, is to be entrusted with care for as long as its natural life entails.

I know that I am straying away from what actually wanted to say in the first place, and noticed that I am not happy with what has happened. I am just unhappy that the lesson is taught at the expense of the hamster - a living being.

Not any more...

Alright. Let me get back to what happened this morning.

As I was tell my wife about how the first medication is to be given to Chubby, my wife cried over the phone upon noticing that Chubby was dead.

"Ayah... Chubby has died!" She cried, "Chubby... Chubby, wake-up sayang!"

Chubby was already cold, stiffed in my son's palm when he took her out of cage.

My heart just sank.

Chubby was herself again late afternoon after Dr. Sulyni, the vet at Pet Safari's Animal Recovery Centre attended to her.

Dr. Sulyni had given her Probiotics, Vitamin B and injected her with Hartman's Solution to rehydrate her, after checking her and found nothing wrong, except that she was dehydrated and weak. Her weight was only 26 grams!

Chubby did give a struggle several times during the administrations of the medicines . She bit both the vet and her assistant each on their palms. She was feisty. She was a fighter. She was pissed after that injection.

Running about the cage with full of zest, she started to eat and eat a lot too. My son and I was totally delighted to see it. She liked to eat and was a big eater. She was big and heavy, thus her name.

She was running about too when we saw her last at 11:00pm, just before we turned-in.

"Good night Chubby..." my wife greeted her as we watched her getting some sleep herself. Her head poking out of her little yellow house as she begin to doze off.

You had quite an afternoon at the vet. I thought to myself.

"You gave me quite a scare there Chubby," I told her out loud, "good night Chubby..."

That was the last time we saw her alive.

I peeked at her cage before I left for work this morning and thought she was still sleeping, since nothing was stirring in that little yellow house of hers.

She was not herself for the past 3 days. We thought nothing of it except that she was not as enthusiastic enough to get her first cheese for the day. She was also not drinking much either. She moved around but hardly touched her food. We still did not think anything was amiss.

Yesterday afternoon was heart-wrenching when we noticed that she was not able to run about, and crunched and curled a lot after a few steps. It was a sure sign she was seriously sick, even for amateur hamster owners like us.

My son and I looked-up in the Internet and found several disturbing medical probabilities from the way she was reacting, the symptoms she showed.

We took her to the vet straight away, but thought of nothing serious would befall her. We were terribly wrong this morning.

I was like a zombie at work. I kept thinking about her and just like my wife and son, could not believe she actually is gone. We miss her dearly. Looking at the empty cage, I just felt a though she was still there. popping her head out anytime and come straight to the cage door for her cheese and a pet on her head.

Chubby. we love you. Whatever pain you had has now gone away. You are now at a better place. Thank you for sharing your love with us. I never thought a being so small can have such a big impact on our lives. Never thought she can make me be so mushy for her. What a soul!

Every time we look out our bedroom window, we will see the tree under which you were laid to rest, we think of the happy memories you have given the 3 of us. Thank you Chubby.