My first hamster passed away this morning. Her name was Hammer because she broke out of the box we bought her in within 3 minutes of putting her in the car. We got her on August 5th 2023, so she lived a bit more than two years long. We originally got her to cheer up my girlfriend, who was going through some rough times, but she ended up being pretty important to me. I remember saying that we would only get her if she took care of cleaning her and everything, but somehow I started to clean her more. I grew pretty attached to just having her around, even if I didn’t interact with her every moment. Her presence really did bring life to our dorm room. Randomly hearing her run on her wheel in the middle of the night brought presence to our room when sometimes if felt kinda empty.

I have had two rats before, so I know about how attached you can get to a small rodent. Rodents have an unfair ratio of personality to lifespan, where it really hurts when they pass. They have enough personality and live just long enough for you to get very attached and die immediately after you get that deep connection.

My girlfriend told me about how her other hamsters were kind of evil and didn’t really like humans, but Hammer was the sweetest hamster she’s had. I have heard that hamsters bite a lot, so I was pretty careful initially with her, but she was never once aggressive. I am always apprehensive about picking up any animal, especially ones that bite, but I never once hesitated to pick up Hammer. She really was the sweetest hamster ever. Even our cats could get really close to her, and she didn’t even react. I don’t know what was up with her. She even booped noses with Joey once and Joey was the one to jump away scared. I remember that Joey smacked her one time that we let her out to roam the place, and she just kept walking around like nothing was going on. One time, she escaped from her box by chewing through it, and she stole some of Jenny’s clothes and brought them inside her home.

Another time, she escaped when we were both in class, and we came home to both our cats sitting in the corner of the room under their cat tower. We didn’t know what they were doing, but it was suspicious, so we investigated, and it was just Hammer sitting there chewing on the wood part of the tower. I don’t know how long they hung around, but I always thought it was hilarious that we raised two cats that are scared of their prey, and the hamster we got did not give a fuck about these two GIANT predators staring her down. One time, we let her roam the room while we cleaned her box, and she got to the cats food bowl and stuffed her cheeks so full of cat food she had an insane shape to her. There are so many stories of her being crazy that is wild that we only had her for two years.

I feel bad now looking back because you don’t really think about their age while you have them, because they look pretty healthy and happy for their entire life, and then the last three days they age so rapidly. She went from a super energy-filled hamster to visibly dying so fast. I feel like I would have wanted to play with her more if I had known she was going to pass so quickly. I really hope she lived a good life, we gave her plenty of space and kept her home clean, and let her out often. She had so much energy in her little rodent body, even when she was dying she was still trying to run around, even though her body couldn’t keep up with her. I’m gonna miss her. I don’t think I could have designed a better hamster. I know I’ll probably never have another hamster again, so I’m glad that she was the one I had. She makes me want another pet rodent but I dont think that I can handle another rodent loss. I remember when Benson my pet rat died, I felt like I lost something so much bigger than just a pet rat. And I feel the same way with her, she was the epitome of you don’t know what you have till its gone. There were some days or even couple days where I didn’t even think about her but in the back of my mind, I knew she was hanging around doing something silly. I remember all the times I was struggling with coding or something, and I just needed a mental break, so I laid on the floor and I looked over, and she is standing up looking over. She really was just always there, and it was comforting. I’m gonna miss her a lot. RIP Hammer.

Joey LOVED her too. He would spend hours sitting right outside of her cage just staring at her. He would get in her cage to smell her any chance he got. I wonder if he will think about her and miss her.

Kitty mourning meal:

Rest in peace Hammer