Part 11: In which we say good-bye to a pal

Not knowing that there was a universe beyond the run, the boys did not share their mother's passion for trying to escape. However, they did know there had to be the main source of beans and chew sticks somewhere out there somewhere. I began to spot hamster shit on the main floor of my office in the morning, but the hamsters themselves were innocently snuggled together in the little blue hut. I patched the fence of the run, but they still got out....in fact, Ted one night found Billy inside the upright can of chew sticks, having apparently jumped straight down inside from my footstool. How they kept getting out stayed a mystery until Billy arrogantly (or stupidly) tried to go over the wall in my presence. He clambered to the top of a tube that was about four inches from the wall, leaped and caught the top of the wall with his claws, and pulled himself over. I saw that on my side, it had been possible for him to climb onto a short footstool and drop back into camp. I moved the tube and Billy wore himself out for a couple of days trying to figure out why the trick didn't work any more. I felt so bad that I almost moved the tube back.

The story gets sad here. Ted and I went to spend Thanksgiving in Sacramento with his mother, and when we came back, Baby was dead. He was lying peacefully in his hut without a mark on him. No signs of wet tail (you don't want to know what that is) or any other illness. Ted buried him, and I planted a hyacinth bulb over his grave...and mourned like an eight-year-old for the next two weeks. The less said about that, the better.

So now there was only Billy. It was difficult to tell whether he was affected by Baby's death or not. I don't know whether going through a paper-chewing-up stage is a form of hamster mourning. He was also refusing -- in my presence -- to eat anything but beans, but at night he came out to chow down. (I had been advised that introducing a male companion might lead to fighting, and as for a female hamster, we ain't goin' there again!)

We were all a little more subdued than before, and Billy spent the days napping in his favorite hideout.