A Sad Day for The Pack

May 27, 2009 -

One lesser known, but no less important member of The Pack is my teddy bear hamster, Butternut Squash. Of all my pets, I probably spent the most time with Butternut, who lived in my cubicle for the past two years. Until last Friday.

See, I'd recently begun to notice that Butternut's hair was turning gray. She was getting old. And while my brain knows that two and a half years is a long life for a hamster, my heart felt like she was so full of life. Butternut Squash was legendary. 

I adopted her along with another hamster (who would later be named Rico Suave for reasons I'm about to make obvious) from a neighbor who was a vet tech and was constantly bringing home all manner of cast off pets. Her apartment was full with a dog, a cat, a snake, 2 turtles and a hedgehog. When our landlord insisted she scale down, I agreed to take the hamsters, who she assured me were both boys. 

Fast forward two weeks: The hamster cage is full with 12 gummy bear shaped babies and the realization that Butternut and Rico weren't fighting that one time I saw them chasing each other around the cage is hitting me like a brick in the face. Ugh. I promptly re-homed Rico to a co-worker and hoped that one very tired Butternut could raise her posse without incident. And raise them she did they each grew up healthy and strong and were adopted by my co-workers. One of them, Moonmaster Gorgotron lives in a cubicle just to my left. 

Getting back to last Friday, Butternut was breathing heavy and simply not herself. The final straw came when a co-worker dropped off a carrot in her cage and mentioned Butternut hadn't scarfed it down the way she usually does. I packed her up and carted her off to Banfield, where I learned that Butternut had some tumors in her belly that had moved to her lungs and were making it hard for to breath. The doctor recommended sending her over the rainbow bridge after letting me say my goodbyes. 

I'm pretty sad about the whole thing and my cubicle feels really empty. But, with Butternut's passing, I've had some really nice reminders about how much pets can help bring out the best in people. Not one person, not one, not even my father who we refer to affectionately as "being from the old school" ever said "It's just a hamster." Or, worse, "You can get another one." Quite the contrary in fact - everyone seemed just as upset as I was by her passing. Some co-workers helped me clean out her space and a lot of people I don't really even know said very kind things when they realized she was gone.

Like I said, sometimes pets help you see the best side of people and not just for that reason, Butternut made my life better. Thanks little mama.