More life stuff

I forgot to tell you the worst bit.

The day after the visit, back home, in the grim grey light of morning when it had become clear that the negotiating process was going to end badly but whilst we were still mired in it, my friend who had been looking after our hamster phoned to say he wasn't looking very well. Not very well at all.

He had been healthy at 4.00am that morning, when she had been unable to sleep and had gone into the kitchen and seen him running on his wheel. Literally on his wheel, ie on the top of it, which is something of a hamster first, according to the vet we later spoke to. But by 8.00am, something had happened, and he wasn't responding to stimuli. When I got there, he was looking dead, but a few twitches indicated life, so I lifted him out of his cage, and held him on my lap, thinking perhaps the warmth of my hands would revive him. For a few minutes, it seemed I was onto something, as his breathing became regular again, and his eyes opened. On the advice of the vet who my friend phoned, we dripped a sole drop of honey into his mouth, and kept him warm. For about half an hour, I willed life and health into him, but alas, the glimmer of hope was forlorn. Whatever was ailing him was too much for his little hamstery form, and he died in my hands.

At 5-yo's valentine party, I was admiring the art work on the classroom wall. The children had had their pictures taken with puckered up lips, and had coloured in their lips in red or pink. They had then written a sentence saying "My valentine kiss is for..." (which actually I didn't think was terribly appropriate, but that's another story). Most of them had written "Mom" or "Dad" or the name of one of their classmates. 5-yo had written "My valentine kiss is for mi ded hamster".

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