Spike the Hamster

A week ago Saturday, we casually stopped by this local pet shop to check out the animals. The kids were awed by the tarantula, we cooed over the baby ducks, cute puppies, and furry rabbits.

Then Austin saw the hamsters with a sign that said $3.99 - $9.99. He said, "Mom, I have $13.00. Can I buy a hamster?" Me- "Um, uh..." I had no answer prepared for that.

These were my thoughts:

1. He has enough money to buy it himself
2. Our poor kids have no pets
3. I couldn't really think of any reason to say no (other than just "NO!")

So we went home and decided to talk it over with Dad, who wasn't with us, and consider it. The next day was Easter Sunday and my adorable son asked me 1,248 times "Can I get a hamster?!" in about a 14-hour period. Let's just say I was a little frustrated and I actually threatened to stop considering it if he asked me one more time!

I told Austin that he needed to research it and find out all he could about hamsters; which were the best kind to buy, how old they should be, how to take care of them, cages, food, etc. He got online and did a ton of research. He compared prices of cages at the national store, ebay, and on craiglist.  He called me to the computer to read said research and information approximately 2,513 times.

As you already guessed, we decided to let him get a hamster despite the fact that the ladies at this local store and the national chain store tried to talk us out of it. They told us we needed to get a rabbit or a guinea pig, that hamsters aren't for little ones. But we weren't in the market for those animals at all... so it was going to be a hamster or nothing. We decided to go ahead and take the risk.

Austin was ECSTATIC! (to put it mildly)

We got some supplies, bedding, and food. Who would have ever guessed that I would have a Pet Points card at the pet shop? Not me!

We got home and assembled the cage and got it all ready for our new furry friend. Austin was seriously taking ownership and practically took his sisters' heads off if they even touched the cage. I told him to COOL IT or he was going to lose that hamster very quickly! He cooled.

We were told to leave Spike (as Austin dubbed him) alone for about 24 hours to let him get used to his new environment. If, after that time, he didn't show any signs of stress- such as not eating his food or drinking- then we could hold him.

At 1:34 pm (Austin noted the exact time that the girl at the pet shop gave us this advice) Spike was taken out of his cage and held as shown below:

Austin told me 1,347 times THANK YOU MOM!

So we are loving our new pet, Spike. It's funny I almost treat it like a baby. If he's sleeping during the day and the girls want to go in the room to see him I say, "No, he's sleeping. Leave him alone." I guess I want him to be a happy hamster. He's usually sleeping during the day but once in a while he's awake in the afternoon and we'll hold him. We usually end up playing with him around 7-8 pm before bed. Sometimes Jared or I will play with him around 10 or so when everyone is asleep.

Austin likes to brag that it's the first "family pet" since none of his cousins have pets. I'm still surprised that we said yes, but so far it's going well. (BTW, you can still see Austin's black eye in the photo above. He had a run-in with a golf ball and a tunnel. It's a long story.)

This is one happy 9 year old!! 

Wish us luck with our new family pet!