A Bug's Life

It's been a couple of weeks since I posted, there's plenty going on and I'm off out to the cinema shortly so might catch up on more things this evening.

Last Saturday was a bit odd; I had planned to go to Exilicon (small local con with Kari Sperring as one of the speakers), but in the morning I noticed Humphrey (tiny hamster, Roborovski) was lying on his side, which for hamsters counts as a Symptom. He wasn't walking but did clutch reflexively and lick at a syringe of water I held for him, so I made a vet appointment in case it was dehydration or an infection of similar, and waited, and kept offering another drop of water every so often. He didn't last more than an hour though, and this was the first time I've had someone or something die while I watch. It left me quite unsettled for the day. He was 2.5, a decorative hamster rather than one who would come and be petted, and I think he had a decent time with his wheel and his food dish.

So that took up my morning instead of getting to the con early. I had cleaned out the temporary tank to nurse Humphrey in, then of course I had to thoroughly clean his proper tank then the temporary tank again, then it was Matilda's turn for cleaning (large hamster who looks like a Friesian cow but also does not like to be handled). Gave all Humphrey's dishes and toys a good soak in Milton and put them away.

Instead of getting to the con in the late morning/lunchtime, it was burying time. I obviously wasn't quite ready yet; I just needed to pull up a bit of bindweed from hamster cemetery corner and dig the hole. but spent an hour doing a thorough weeding of the whole back third of the garden, digging down and pulling up bindweed roots (even though this is a futile effort against the incursion), untwining the new tendrils from the other plants.

After shower and some lunch and a couple of errands in town I got to the convention at 3, chatted with some people and got to a couple of talks.

But it was a bit strange.

I'm not planning to get a second hamster, instead I will put my cardboard robots in the tank, so they can be seen but can't get out to go rampaging. I don't know what the cat will make of that.

Maybe Matilda will like getting slightly more attention.