Losing Our Friend

Just as I was about to doze off Friday night, I was awakened by Husband shaking me. "Hey - I think Piper's dead!"

"Huh? What do you mean?" I asked. I was groggy from having just begun my descent into slumberland.

Husband repeated himself, which caused me to spring out of bed. Maybe it was the hormones, maybe it was the fact that I've had an unnatural attachment to the little rodent, but I was in tears before we hit the bottom of the stairs. He reached his hand into the cage and pulled out our little pet, who was curled into a ball, eyes partway open, looking very much alive and just sleeping. As I cried, he just kept holding and stroking her, not quite believing she was dead I think. Finally I convinced him to wrap her up and put her in a little box I found. We put the box in the garage until she could be buried in the morning. We began to discuss what could have killed her, and Husband theorized that it was the fact that our electricity was out for over 2 hours in the middle of the night, the night before and the heat was obviously not on during that time. Add to that the fact that Piper is in the coldest room in our house - our family room - and that's apparently a recipe for hypothermia for a hamster. My sister, who happened to be over, decided to take it upon herself to look up what temperature hamsters should be kept at (a little tidbit you'd think we would have previously researched).

"Uh, guys...you'd better go get her out of that box, because hamsters hibernate!" she said.

Yes folks, it's a little known fact that hamsters can actually hibernate by going into what is called torpor. It's a state that is reserved for emergency situations - which for a hamster is when the temperature falls between 40-50 degrees. It is not good for a hamster to go into torpor, and if they stay in it too long, they will die. Various websites recommended that you try to gently wake up a hamster out of torpor by rubbing it to warm it up. Numerous people recounted finding their little rodents "dead" only to discover that they began to wake up (one family put their "dead" hamster in the fridge for some reason, only to find it munching away on veggies in the morning). We read that we should watch the whiskers for a slight twitching caused by the hamster's slow breathing. Bearing all that in mind, Husband went out to the garage and unwrapped the heretofore-considered-dead hamster and began to gently stroke her with a look of determination. All three of us kept examining her whiskers for movement, swearing we could see some, and swearing that her eyes were opening a little wider. After over 20 more minutes we decided to wrap her up in a warm nest under her little igloo in her cage and put her in the warmest room in the house - the boys' bathroom.

Examining Piper for Whisker Movement

The next morning, it was obvious upon inspection that Piper was definitely dead. By this time, we had had a chance to grapple with it and we were able to at least tell the boys and show her how gently she had died, as she was curled in a little ball in her nest looking like she had just gone to sleep. Any last-ditch hopes we might have had that she might still pull out of the state of torpor while we were at church were dashed when we got back and Husband found the cage beginning to smell.

We wrapped her back up, put her back in the little box, and Husband dug her a little grave behind our lilac bush. The boys were very interested in the whole ordeal, but of course their immediate question was, "When can we get another hamster?" We convinced them that we would consider another hamster - but not until after we get our new baby home and he and I get acclimated (which I don't anticipate happening any time in the next 2 months).

The Burial


R.I.P. - Piper
She was a sweet hamster. She never bit, she had personality plus,
and she let kids hold and snuggle her. She followed us in her little
exercise ball like she was a cat, hanging out at our ankles. She sat on
her hind legs and begged to be taken out and held at night. She was what
I brought home when I wasn't sure whether I should have a baby or get a puppy.
We loved her a lot!