RIP Zucchini

Let's just say that this hasn't been a good month for us.

Hamsters smell, so I moved the cage into the schoolroom for the night. We leave the window open in there for the cats and it must have gotten cold last night. We were off to church in a hurry so I didn't check on him until late afternoon when we got home. He was lying on his side with his feet stuck out and barely breathing.

Picture a very large, Latin family all concerned about the hamster and giving home remedies. We'd put some grass in his cage so I thought maybe he'd eaten something. Raccoon was very upset so I thought doing something was better than nothing for his sake. I gave Zucchini some cooking oil, supposedly to try to make him throw up.

He agonized for several more hours, but he just didn't die. Right at bedtime it occurred to me: I wonder if he's hibernating? I looked up some info online and then filled a sock with warm rice which I put under him.

Sure enough, Zucchini started to wake up. Unfortunately, then he choked on the oil left over in his throat and he tried to throw up over and over again. Then he died. Poor thing. I take responsibility for this one.

Raccoon was much more upset about Zucchini than Knight, probably because they were constantly together.

This time we held out on the "no more pets" and we're off to a small amusement park tomorrow as consolation.