Poppy

Meet Poppy (aka Pops or Popsicle). She is a gorgeous syrian female, born about May 2012. She is the first hamster adopted in our student house and is kind of the catalyst for the next 6 hamsters. We adopted her from a family who were getting rid of her because their two new kittens were taking too much of a fancy to her.

The cage she arrived in was on the smallish side for a syrian and she had been fed guinea pig food so was severely underweight. Although she came with all the bedding and food (for guinea pigs!) the previous owners had left, most of it had to be thrown away as it reeked of cigarette smoke! It took a while for Pops to stop smelling too.

She has been lovely from the first, very hyperactive and very attention seeking! She loves being out playing, running in the exercise ball, exploring, escaping- she has managed to escape from the ball once and ended up underneath the kitchen cupboards so we had to have all the skirting boards out- nightmare!! She was only missing for a few minutes though and probably enjoyed the illicit wander!

She has now put on lots of weight and is living in a toy packed bin cage, thoroughly enjoying the attention from both humans and male hamsters!

Sadly Poppy is no longer with us, having being quietly and gently put to sleep on the 22nd April 2014. For a few months she had been developing a strange hard lump in her tummy. It didn't seem to be concerning her much and she was just as active as she had always been (very hyperactive!!). She was eating normally and everything seemed fine except that the lump was growing steadily bigger. In the last week, the growth of the lump seemed to accelerate and Pops no longer ran on her saucer or moved about so much, her bottom was so heavy she couldn't pull herself up and over things very easily although she always gave it a go. 

Eventually it was decided that we should take Poppy to the vet as the lump was now bigger than a golf ball and she looked incredibly uncomfortable. He said it could either be a tumor or pyometra. If it was pyometra then there was the option of surgery but as she was over two years old the risk of her not waking up from the anesthesia was high. Another option was just to leave it until other symptoms appeared as the lump would continue to grow bigger until it squashed poor Pops' insides and she wouldn't be able to eat or poo and may end up in severe pain. Or the third option was euthanasia, whilst she was still relatively comfortable and with all of her functions. 

Lucy decided that she didn't want to wait until Poppy had deteriorated so much that euthanasia was the only option, potential surgery would be stressful and with a high risk rate, especially as the vet wasn't entirely sure what the lump was- so the awful and incredibly sad decision was made to say goodbye to Pops in the nicest and swiftest way. 

We were both there throughout and never left her side, and when we got her home again she was buried in a new shiny flowerpot underneath some sweet peas where she will always be remembered. 

She was a beautiful hamster, very cheeky and always on the go, and will be very much missed.