Animal Planet Comes to My House!

Some of you may remember a blog entry I posted a little over a month ago called, No Hamster Dance for Us , where I briefly chronicled my reasoning for not purchasing a hamster as a second pet for our family. Most of my decision making was based on input from former hamster owners who, almost unanimously, discouraged me from taking the plunge. Comments such as “they stink” was enough to deter me from driving to the nearest pet store and making my selection from the plethora of smelly hamsters. We already have a smelly dog at home so why would we need to add another competing entity? Needless to say, my wife was not happy with those who negatively affected my determination (she is harmless), but I thought we had mutually agreed to disagree…until the kids called me a couple days later while I was at work to inform me that they had just bought a hamster. So much for the “wives submit to your own husbands” principle!

The first few days, I really didn’t like the thing…sorry, I guess “the thing” has a name, which is Rhino. You may recognize our plagiarized name from another famous hamster featured in the recent animated movie Bolt. But people were right – the hamster sometimes stink (like all of us at one time or another) and he (or she…I’m not sure how to tell) is pretty loud at night; however, after dark he (or she) turns into a one-man (or woman) show. Seriously, this rodent has some major energy to release after the sun goes down and although I hate to say it, I have actually enjoyed watching him (or her) zoom around in the ball, furiously run on the wheel, and crawl through the tunnels in the cage. It’s like having Animal Planet in your home without the price of cable!

Even though I’m still not keen on everything about the hamster, I’ve learned to overlook the negative aspects in order to concentrate on the things I enjoy. Three people in my home really love the hamster (the verdict is still out on what the dog thinks) and I don’t want to be the one who spoils it for everyone else. There are some people who thrive on being the spoilers or partypoopers, as I like to call them, and they’re not happy until everyone else is not.

I hope you are not that person.