I wanted to add an update post on Abu the hamster. He has become such an important figure to you. You think about him all the time. You take him out of his cage and rub him on your face. You like to have him near you all the time, so you have a little carrier that I call the hamster purse. It's a little plastic rectangle with a lid and handle. You put him in there and carry him all around with you. He usually falls asleep in there, frequently upside down so he looks dead. The other day, he even had a part in our make believe fairy tale reinactment of Cinderella. He had the part of Gus-Gus the mouse. He had a costume and everything, although I don't think it was true to the time period, but you work with what you have.

Abu had a second escape attempt too. Gave me a heart attack! This one was definitely Mom's fault. We had cleaned his cage and he was rolling around in his ball. I asked you to pick up some things, and you asked me to put him away. Well, my attention got distracted and I forgot. We went outside to play, and when we came in, we saw the ball sitting there, lid popped off. You began frantically searching for Abu, and I began frantically searching for the cats. I found all the cats and locked them up, and you found Abu! He was under Mom & Dad's dresser. He didn't really want to come out, so we had to employ the cheese cracker as bait again. Whew! Disaster averted. I don't know what were going to do when he "passes". You are going to be so sad. I've thought about the old hamster switcheroo, but that wouldn't really be right, plus very tricky to pull off.