I was 14 yrs old when I first decided that I would get a hamster (I would have owned one a year earlier but I had been savaged by friends hamster). I begged and begged my parents to let me get my own pet. I promised them that I would take full care and responsibility for it. I swore blind that I would clean it out every week and pay for all of its food and toys out of my paper round money.
Eventually they came round to my way of thinking and relented. I went into town and bought the biggest hamster cage I could afford, then a week later I purchased the woodchippings, food, water bottle, wheel, house and bedding. Only the best would do for my hamster. Again another week passed by until I could afford to buy my hamster. I went into town clutching my six pounds walked straight into the nearest pet store and selected my hamster.
I knew that I wanted a male hamster, I also knew that I wanted it to be all golden and have a bubbly personality. As I looked through the cages I spotted my dream hamster. There he was just running on his little wheel as soon as I approached the cage, he stopped running and stared back at me.
&Quot;That's the one I want mum" I cried.
Quickly I grabbed the nearest pet store assistant and pointed out my hamster. As she lifted it none too carefully out of the cage, the name that I would call him popped into my head. 'Leon'
I carried Leon as carefully as I could all the way home, as soon as I got home I gently lifted him out of his box and put him onto his new home that I had set up for him. I knew that really I ought to leave him alone for a few days to allow him to get used to all of the new smells and sounds of my house. However that didn't stop me peering through the cage at him for 2 hours straight.
After a few days of anticipation, I finally fetched Leon out of his cage and began to attempt to tame him. For the first few days he did everything that he could to prevent me from getting him out of his cage, but eventually he realised that it was pointless resisting a 14 year-old boy.
Soon we settled into a routine, every day after I got home from school, I would get him out of his cage, play with him for an hour, then put him into his ball whilst I had dinner. After dinner I would bring him up some cooked meat and raw carrot for him to eat. He would wolf it down and then go to sleep again.
Eventually, as everyone realises, kids get very jealous. Soon my little sister wanted a hamster. She begged and cried and begged until mum and dad relented and bought her one. The hamster she chose was orange in colour with a white stripe around its belly, my sister named it Sugar.
Everything was going very well between me and Leon and my sister and Sugar, until one day when my sister and dad were cleaning out Sugar's cage, as they sorted and through out the bedding to replace it with fresh stuff. Nine baby hamsters fell out onto the table. Quickly Dad scooped them out and put them back into the cage with Sugar.
No one had known that my little sister had thought that it would be a nice idea to introduce Sugar to Leon, so she had trespassed into my room at night, removed MY hamster from his cage and put it on the bed with her hamster. That night Sugar was in season and Leon was only too willing! 16 days later Sugar had had her babies.
We all quickly rushed down to the library to take out some books on hamster breeding. We all tried to be angry at my sister, but the baby hamsters were SO sweet it was unbelievable.
After five weeks all of the babies had found new homes and had departed their mother. Unfortunately a few months later Sugar at the age of one and a half years old died in my dad's hands. She had got liquid in her lungs and was choking on it.
Leon and I however had many good hours of fun just being with each other, he lived to the age of two and a half before he died in his bed.
I was sixteen almost seventeen when he died, and I admit I cried. All of the hours that he and I had together seemed to have all been wasted. Eventually I was pleased that I had owned a hamster. Leon was the best pet I had ever had, he was a friend and a companion, and I had always tried to make sure that he was happy and that I was the best owner I could be. He and I were happy together and even now I'm almost 18 I still miss him a lot.
A few months ago I bought a Dark Eared White Syrian Male who I've called Neo. He's lovely but he has a lot to live up to. Recently I've begun to get interested in Hamster Genetics and have just mated him to a female. She is expecting on Sunday 3rd April.
And so the cycle of buying, owing, loving and losing a pet and a friend starts again. Only this time I will have one of Neo's babies, so a part of him will live forever.
Thankyou for reading my story of my Hamster
Darren Pile
Ps. If any one wants to find out how the babies get on, my e-mail is: dpile@thedoghousemail.com