Our little Lolita is gone.

[fluffydd]

Lolita Lemming passed away last night. She came to live with us in March 2013 with her mother and 2 aunts or older sisters, we were never sure of their relationship. She was only 2 weeks old and about 3cm long. She grew up so fast but never got as big or fat as the other steppe lemmings so we always worried about her health. Her small size meant we could always tell which of the 4 was Lolita. She was a lovely little pet and loved running in her wheel and flying saucer. Even though she was tiny she would happily jump on to the palm of a hand to be lifted out for a little run about on the couch. We will miss her.

This is a photo from July 2014. Lolita is the lemming to the left of the flying saucer.
http://i740.photobucket.com/albums/xx42/Sprogly123/steppe%20lemmings/404479cb-e9cb-45c8-b704-7d208aba0060_zps38d449d5.jpg (http://s740.photobucket.com/user/Sprogly123/media/steppe%20lemmings/404479cb-e9cb-45c8-b704-7d208aba0060_zps38d449d5.jpg.html)
http://i740.photobucket.com/albums/xx42/Sprogly123/steppe%20lemmings/0538b41a-ae36-4e5c-b5b5-b1244c01abc3_zps19abace2.jpg (http://s740.photobucket.com/user/Sprogly123/media/steppe%20lemmings/0538b41a-ae36-4e5c-b5b5-b1244c01abc3_zps19abace2.jpg.html)

This is a video from May 2013. The lemmings are in their travel box while their tank was being cleaned. I think Lolita is the lemming that runs along the log and is third to jump on to the flying saucer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr7Pkpga-cw&feature=youtu.be

[souffle]

I am so sorry for your loss. She was very cute.
Play well at the bridge Lolita x

[GlennUU]

I am so sorry to hear about your loss, it is never easy to let one go.

[SinNyx]

I'm so sorry to hear about your loss, she looked very lovely, I'm glad she had a good life with you x

[cypher]

Very sorry for your loss, she looks a lovely little girl & don't the smallest so often have the biggest characters. Sounds like she had a great life with you.

[DrKMcK]

I am so sorry you lost Lolita. I didn't know you could keep lemmings. They look adorable. Play well at the Bridge Lolita. :-(

[starshme]

I'm very sorry for your loss. It's never easy to know what to say but I hope your memories will bring you comfort.

[fluffydd]

Thank you everyone. I've been thinking and talking about Lolita a lot over the last few days and remembering lots of funny things she used to do. Whenever she jumped into a wheel that another lemming was running in she always wanted to run in the opposite direction which brought things to a standstill. She was always more interested in coming out of the tank than the others. Sometimes when I put her back she'd refuse to get off my hand so I had to get her out again.

DrK - there aren't too many people that keep lemmings. Ours are steppe lemmings rather than arctic lemmings. They're quite easy to keep but they do need a sugar free diet. We feed ours on canary seed and millet, dried alfalfa, degu nuggets, timothy hay and broccoli. They are quite fearless and very inquisitive and happy to jump on to an open palm. And they absolutely love running in wheels.

It does feel a lot like Lolita is still with us. When I go into the room and there is a lemming sitting in the food dish that looks just like her it's hard to believe that she isn't still in there with them. Maybe that makes it a bit easier.