Daniel's Hamster

We made Daniel's dream come true and got him a pet hamster for Christmas!  It was really fun because we wrapped up the cage for him to open Christmas morning and then Jake helped him get it all set up with the wood shavings, food, water etc. that evening. The next day Jake took him to the pet store to pick one out and Daniel is now the very proud owner of Tiny, an albino hamster with snow white fur and red eyes. 

Tiny is super cute and lots of fun to watch. We've had her for 2 weeks now and she is just getting to the point where she can be held and petted without biting. 

 I resisted getting a pet for a long time but am very pleased to find that a hamster is a great way to go. They're contained within a smallish cage, they keep themselves very clean and they don't need tons of attention just to name a few of the benefits. Low-maintenance, high-payoff. It's great!

Jake had several hamsters growing up and has been so great in helping us learn the ropes in caring for and interacting with Tiny. I am very grateful for his experience and expertise.  Without it I would have had a much harder time taking the plunge.

Daniel loves having a hamster; I can tell he is so pleased to be her owner and is quite attached to her already.  There was a point where we had to consider the possibility of taking her back to the pet store and trading her in for another hamster that didn't bite so much. But Daniel really wanted to keep Tiny and told us, "it's not right to exclude a member of the family." I'm so glad for his decision, especially since she's not biting nearly so much anymore and it made me realize that I'm rather attached to this particular hamster as well :)

I am charmed by this one of Daniel and Tiny just looking at each other:

Her cage is pretty cool.  Between it and having Daniel as her owner, Tiny is livin' the good life:

 Psst!  She's in the bottom-right corner: