Sad news

The week started off with very sad news.  Our dear little hamster, Ollie, had passed away on the weekend at Mrs. Boekhout’s house.  Although Mrs. B. had noticed that Ollie wasn’t as “spry” as last year, he seemed to be just fine on Friday.  As a matter of fact, early in the week he had entertained us with some interesting acrobatics while hanging upside down from the top of his cage! On Saturday night, however, Ollie just didn’t seem well.  Mrs. B. gave him some extra cuddles and tucked him into his little bed.  By Sunday morning he had passed away.

We have set up a little memorial for Ollie, with his picture and a copy of the Rainbow Bridge poem.  Everyone has written good-bye letters, which will be buried with him.  It is a beautiful spot behind Mrs. B.’s house, with trees, ferns, moss and the sound of the creek below We hope that he will meet some of Mrs. B.’s past hamster pets, like M.J., Fluffy, and Little Bit.  We also wonder if his spirit might look down over us, just like Gino in the story “Class Pets: Ghost of PS 42”.  We wrote about our many happy memories of dear Ollie. He was very sweet and gentle.  He didn’t bite, but he did like to nibble sometimes.  He loved getting his apple slice from the Special Helper every day.  He really did stuff food into his “suitcase cheeks” and hide it in his bed!  Sometimes he would “camp out” and take all his bed out of his bedroom and pack it down into the bottom level of his cages. Being mostly nocturnal, Ollie spent most of the school day snuggled up, asleep in his bed.   We could tell when he had done a lot of “exercise” because his big wheel at the top of his cage would be tipped down the next morning.

 It’s too bad that such adorable little creatures have such a short life span (only 2-3 years).  At least we know that he was well loved and cared for, given lots of yummy food, and had a large, interesting cage to live in. We will get another hamster after a while, but dear Ollie will always be in our heart. 

 

Rainbow Bridge Poem

 

Rainbow Bridge to Heaven

This version of the poem came from people-to-pets.com and the picture is by Maris Stella.
 
 

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