Meet the other members of our family

Since the sad passing of Max (our black lab) last year, we have been left with 2 pets: a fish and a hamster.

Meet our fish:

His name is, well, Fish. Or otherwise known as (by Kurt and I) “The Fish that just won’t die”. Now don’t get me wrong - we do enjoy Fish but we never realized just how much work a fish tank would be. When we originally got the fish tank, there were 5 fish. Over the first 6 months, all the other fish passed away except Fish. He is now going on 5 years with our family. Are fish supposed to live that long?

He is actually quite a funny pet. His tank sits on the half wall between our family room and kitchen so while we eat dinner he watches us. You can almost see him drooling! We feed him at night right before we go to bed. If he feels it is getting late and is worried that we might forget to feed him, he starts “dancing” along the side of the tank that we are sitting on. If we are on the couch, we can see his shadow “dance” across us. He is pretty funny and interacts with us a lot more that I thought a fish could.

Meet our hamster:

His name is Hammie-Cookie. We used to have 2 hamsters, Hammie and Cookie, but unfortunately one passed away (it may or may not have been because someone (who shall remain nameless) forgot to feed him - but I do have to say in my defense that there was a stash of food in the cage when I cleaned it out so it isn’t my fault if he forgot where he hid it! P.S. Yes, I do feel really bad about this!) We didn’t know which one passed away so the surviving hamster became Hammie-Cookie (so one of the girls didn't get upset - they each got to name 1 hamster).

This hamster must have at least 9 lives. He has been dropped numerous times from a proportionate height that a human probably wouldn’t survive - and just shook it off, he spent time in Max’s mouth (yes, I said IN Max’s mouth - Max found the cage on the laundry room floor (the hamster was moved there so he wouldn’t get too hot on the dryer) and Max decided to play with Hammie-Cookie. Max played very gently - only goo-ed him all up. We washed him up, dried him off and put him back in his cage; up on the counter) and there is a 50 percent chance that this is the hamster that spent a day or 2 under the refrigerator. This hamster definitely has a guardian angel; and we keep it really busy!

He is pretty funny too. He comes over to the edge of the cage to peek out and see what is going on. He also has a ball that we put him in and he runs around the house. He has actually gotten really good and can run full steam ahead, fly around a corner and stop mid-stride all without running into anything. Pretty impressive for a little hamster!

P.S. do you know how hard it is to get a picture of a fish and a hamster? They are not very cooperative! And yes, Kurt thinks I have officially lost it!