Anyone who has seen my
mouse thread will know that Nutmeg and Floodmouse were some of the mice we got a few months ago. Very few on the forum knew Taz because he wasn't ours but he was a very special ham so I asked his family if I could mention him when writing memorials today.
Nutmeg and Floodmouse
Nutmeg and Floodmouse were probably related and probably sisters. They came into our lives back in February, we were looking to get more female mice and someone on gumtree had an unplanned litter... We arranged to get three girls from her, these were named Floodmouse, Moxyfru and Dot. When collecting our girls we saw the conditions were horrendous and a few weeks later we went back and got the rest. All the mice we got that day (all thirteen of them!) were named after nuts because I'd joked we must be nuts to be getting them. Maybe we were but they were and are a billion times better off with us than where they were.
To cut a very long story short (its all in the mouse thread for anyone who doesn't know it)... One litter, lots of neutering and months of madness later... Until last week we had a group of fourteen mousey girls living together happily and planning to meet our eight neutered males in a few weeks time. Then Nutmeg died, a few days later Floodmouse did the same, Hazel suddenly became very ill and most of the others started showing signs of illness, most of the group suddenly had a respiratory infection. The girls have been on medication since last Sunday and are all recovering rapidly. We don't know why they developed the infection or why Nutmeg and Floodmouse died, we never will know. It might be a few things but after a lot of reassurance from helpful people on a mouse forum we do believe there's nothing we could have done differently or better for them.
The girls were both young - by our best estimates they were both born in January this year with Floodmouse being a litter ahead of Nutmeg. Our estimates may be wrong but they definetly weren't old mice. They were both nice mice, Floodmouse was one of our most nervous girls but she got along brilliantly with other mice and seemed to really enjoy the time she had with us. Nutmeg was more confident, much more difficult to sex (when we got the thirteen she lived with the boys for a few days but luckily didn't get pregnant during that time) and a really good mouse. She was often on lookout duty, keeping an eye on us and what we were up to. She liked having so many friends for company, she was happy to spend time with us... She was generally a pretty happy mouse.
They may be gone but they won't be forgotten, there were very few lessons we could learn from their deaths but we've learnt what we can and hopefully those lessons will help us continue to care for their family well for whatever time we have with that family
Nutmeg
Floodmouse (and one of her two white mouse friends)
Taz
As I've already said, Taz wasn't our ham but to us he was always an important one. This is the first time I've spoken about him by name on the forum so he needs a bit more explanation than our girls. We met Taz before his family did, a colleague let me choose his sons first hamster. We went to Kingswinford, looked at all the hams on the sales table, thought for a while (taking in everything from our first impressions through to gender, breeder, colour genetics...) and chose Taz.
He seemed nice and calm all day... Then we got him home to ours for the night and handling him was suddenly like trying to hang on to a bar of soap. I must admit I had my worries that night, I really wanted to have chosen the right ham and a livewire wasn't quite what I'd had in mind... Taz went home the next day, met his new family and soon settled in nicely. I got all the important updates and it was a real pleasure to hear how well Taz was doing. He was looked after brilliantly, every update I heard told me that Taz wasn't just the right hamster, he was the perfect hamster.
The following few stories are just my favourite memories, I'm sure his family have many more.
We got to have Taz stay for a holiday and he was a fantastic guest. He had playtime every night, chatted to my friends on facebook (ok he didn't type English too well but he definetly tried!), clambered over us, enjoyed the toys we set out and proved everything I knew - that he was being cared for brilliantly. I knew his owner would have missed him so Taz took a few holiday photos home to show that he'd had a good time.
In October he celebrated his birthday, I'd never heard of a hamster getting a birthday party before but Taz had one and I loved hearing about it. Taz had a lot of great things in his life, a really caring owner, treats, regular playtimes, loads of love and amazing care. He's made me smile countless times in his life and I've really enjoyed knowing and hearing about him.
Sadly Taz died this morning at the age of 20 months old, he had amazing care but illness hits even the best of us and sadly it seems it was his time. He had an amazing bond with his owner, its been a true pleasure hearing about them and I don't believe any hamster could've had a better life. He wasn't ours but he was special, he was important to us and I wanted to share at least my memories of his story.
There are other photos of my girls on this website and I know people knew them. As no-one knew Taz I've put some of my favourite photos of him up in a
photobucket album, I took most of them during his holiday here and the other two during his single night here as a youngster.
Three animals with three different personalities but all three will be missed
Nutmeg and Floodmouse and Taz
Hearing about, and seeing, Taz was a real treat. He may not have been a HC hammy, but I'm glad you've introduced him, and his story. Beautiful hammy. I am sorry for his family. They'll miss him so much. Floodmouse, Nutmeg and Taz...At the Rainbow Bridge all pets get along and play together, waiting for the time when they and their humans are together again. So I hope you all play well until that time...
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