Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?
Just kidding.
But we do have two dwarf Chinese hamsters that go by those names. I don't think we named them very well based on their personalities, but Brianne is totally stuck to those names. Which I don't mind, since I picked them out. :)
For the last year and a half, we had a white Russian hamster named Sleep. She got her name because every time Brianne wanted to see her, we had to say "No, she's sleeping". So, naturally, Brianne associated "sleep" with the hamster and the name stuck. She was such a good, sweet little thing. When I first saw her, she literally rolled over on her back so I could pet her underside. Brianne absolutely loved her! She didn't want to let Sleep crawl on her, but she loved to pet her while she crawled on one of us. Wish I could find a picture of the little thing - she was so cute!
We noticed that she hadn't been doing so well lately, but what could we do? One day, she crawled out of her "house" and settled in the corner of the cage under one of her tubes. She would get around and move once in awhile, but for the most part she did was she did best - sleep. Last Tuesday, while Joe was at Gymboree with Brianne, I stopped to think when the last time was that I saw Sleep moving around. When I realized it had been a couple days, I decided to try and stir her. It wasn't uncommon for us to go a couple days without seeing her move or hearing her run in her wheel, but for her to be out in the open and I hadn't seen her move seemed odd. I went up to the cage and knocked on the side. Nothing. There was NO WAY I was going to touch her if she was dead, so I left it until Joe got back. He said he'd seen her move around the day before and after I told him what happened that morning, he went to try and rouse her as well. She was cold. Sleep was taking the ultimate nap. Poor Brianne saw us over at the cage and immediately wanted to see her dear friend. She asked for Sleep and Joe said, "Honey, Sleep went to live with Heavenly Father" to which she replied "Sleep come back?". Joe and I looked at each other and exchanged a "What now look"? Of course, a two-year old's attention span is short and easily sidetracked and before we knew it she was off on some other adventure, leaving Joe and I to pick up the pieces.
Sleep was buried in our garden and we started talking about whether we wanted to replace her with another hamster, get a guinea pig instead, or just scrap the whole deal. I honestly don't know how we ended up on the decision we did, but we decided to get two dwarf hamsters instead. Hence the addition of Bert and Ernie to our home.
They have been so wildly entertaining! They are incredibly fast little guys. Bert is rambunctious and very curious, constantly out and about, climbing the sides of the cage and putting on more miles in the wheel than Sleep ever did. He also will come out and play during the day, much to Brianne's delight! Ernie is much more timid and shy, preferring to hide in the house during the day and only surfacing once in awhile. Bert likes to sleep in some of the upper "viewing" tubes and play pieces and once in awhile, Ernie will go with him. They both eat more than Sleep ever did, which also means...yeah, we're going to have to clean the cage more. Not that there was a question about that ever - two hamsters would be bound to make more of a mess than one. But they combined eat more in one day than Sleep would in a week!
We love our little hamsters and look forward to the fun they will bring into the house. This whole situation has definitely made me think (again) about that day when Triton or Sammy either don't wake up from their naps or don't come home from the vet...they're both 9 years old and that's up there in "dog years". But, for now, we don't have to worry about it because they are very much here still. And watching (at least Triton is) for an opportunity for a hamster snack.
