Introducing: Humphrey

For a few years I have told my "roommates" that the next person that brings an animal in our house has to move out and take all of the animals with them except my dog. This started after I got tired of taking care of everyone else's cats, aquariums, hamsters, and hermit crabs. Well, with the recent loss of Emmett that can't ring true any more.

I think Eve found her "out" to that statement because last week she started asking for a Chinese dwarf hamster. Both of my kids have had hamsters before. Here's the deal: I HATE rodents of all kinds!! They are dirty, they stink, every single one we have ever owned was a biter, and they only live a couple of years. The last one we got 2 or 3 years ago had babies a few days after we brought her home!! The pet store wouldn't take the mamma and babies back so we were stuck. Lucky for me, only 1 survived. Xander wanted to keep that one but it must have been unhealthy because he only lived about 6 months.

Even with all of the above problems we let Eve get one. She spent all of her own money to buy everything she needed. We spent the day Saturday going to Walmart (for supplies) and checking out different pet stores to get everything. She ended up spending $47. She got a starter kit cage and the hamster at PetSmart. She found food, water bottle, and bedding for pretty cheap at Walmart. The ball and some treats came from our local pet store (we try to support local stores whenever we can, however, they didn't have Chinese dwarf's).

So, we now welcome to our home, Humphrey (named after the children's books series about a hamster named Humphrey):

Read more about the Humphrey series here!! I recommend it for 3rd-5th graders. It is just about the only books I can get Eve to read.

BTW: I made it out of 2 whole pet stores without a puppy! I just have to hang on until November (after vacation) and I can start shopping.