[SevySev]

Dear Ria P and Serendipity7000,

Thank you so much for your last messages. I read them several times when I needed it, but I needed some time away from it all to grieve. I feel better now.

We buried Bruce on Monday 2 weeks ago in a nice place, and we just put his cage away this week-end. We also sold his previous spare cage (which we were doing anyway) to someone who needs it for their new little hammy. I have stopped looking at the pictures from his last days, I am in a better place now where I try to choose and trust that he was a happy little hamster and that we cannot understand everything that happens, can we? And that it's not fair to laser-focus on just the last days when he spent many months with us, even if it wasn't a full year.

We also have decided not to take another hammy until after baby is here (baby is due early May!) because it would be more anxiety and stress and kind of unfair for the hammy, so since it happened this way, we'll go with the pause which seems simplest and more wise. We thought about it a lot. We went to the pet store and saw a few hammys there - one exactly like Bruce - and it warmed my heart to see them so happy and alive. We will definitely have another one when the time is right.

Yes - it was LMCV that I was referring to. In retrospect I think we were more worried about the anxiety of the risk itself, rather than any real belief that this was likely to happen. In pregnancy there are so many worries that come up, it was just one too many. I also reached out to my midwife about it then, who did some research for me when I was unable, and she read something somewhere about a study (they are very rare though) reporting something like only 46 cases in hamsters over 40 years in one country - I didn't have that number at the time, and it helped put things in perspective.

Ria P I appreciate your suggestions on the mite treatments and on the sandbaths which we will definitely try next time! And you calming words, thank you.

Serendipity, for the chirping it was really puzzling us, as he started suddenly to do it constantly for a few weeks, while running, walking, feeding, playing with us, and didn't seem unwell, so we thought this was just his new thing. It reduced in the last week so we ruled out pain, you know. In any case there was nothing we did that would change his chirping, again making us think he was not in pain. I guess we will never know what teh chirping meant.

I am really pleased that you have pointed out Austins Hamster Haven in Doncaster, I think in the meantime supporting them with donations through their wishlist would be a great idea!

And thank you for the link. If anything, it helped me put my pain in perspective - at least we didn't have to take responsibility to put him down, he left when he needed to.

For sure he will always stay in our hearts and put a smile on our face just thinking of him, just like our little Myles did before him.

I'll probably be back on the forum in a few months, or whenever we get a new hammy, for advice and plenty questions and sharing cute pics!

Take care and thanks again to all who commented on my threads about little Bruce <3