Hello... Little Ones?

As Mayor of HamsterVille, I decided to spruce-up the place today instead of the routine Sunday chores tomorrow.

It all makes sense to do it today...

Wifey went off to the shop while our son had gone off in the morning for his English language tuition and was coming back before noon for his lunch and off again to his Malay language tuition in the afternoon.

That would leave me alone at home, no where to go or nothing much to do... HamsterVille, here I come. Sunday will be a good day to rest or go out and for me to spend some time with our son.

All was going well as planned, one home after the other was cleaned, and the residents were each screened to be in good health, sand-bathed in scented lavender, and returned back to their spanking clean homes... then came the shock.

One home reserved for Ms Shirley who intends to adopt the 4 ladies, totally surprised me with babies... all 7 of them!


Apparently, not all 4 were females. One turned out to be responsible for fathering the 7... red , fur-less and fragile-looking babies. I only noticed it when I picked the last inhabitant out of their home... 2 of the babies dangled under her, obviously were suckling at the time. What!

We had 44 hammies two weeks ago, and were thrilled that Ms Summer was here to adopt 10 of them and she left our home happy to receive as we were to give. We then had 34 left... a few more were potentially still be adopted by several interested callers.

Now that we have an addition of 7 more, the number has risen once again pass the 40 mark! Yikes!

It was a mixed feeling for me as I welcomed the newbies to HamsterVille. At the same time, thinking that this job was somewhat endless... I can never reduce the population from a "hamster breeding farm" level.

I was saddened when 2 of the babies were not stirring while grouped together. Most probably the 2 had suffocated by their first-time mother's weight as she tried to cope with her rather large liter.

I told my son about the babies when he came back for lunch. He was equally surprised, but it explained the babies calls he heard amongst the homes yesterday. The babies were born on Friday, 23 March 2007... for the birth certificates issuance purpose.

It is quite obvious that our son's job is to bury the 2 unfortunate souls under what he now calls it as HamsterVille CemeTree. Yes, that same tree right in front of our bedroom window where the last burial was for Luckie and before that, our favourite Buddy.

Oh my, that makes me miss Buddy all over again... sigh.

Well, one good thing is that we have more than enough hammies to love and care for. Now with the babies, we have to keep vigil, ensuring this particular home is especially clean so as not to attract ants that can hurt them.

A Mayor's job is never dull... never done... never end?!