So, um. Yeah. Did I mention I can do things on a whim?

[clo_again]

So. You know how I've wanted rats for months? Planned names. Cage sizes. Toys. Colours. Everything.

I now own a Roborovski dwarf hamster. Named Barnabas. Yeah. Which is an utterly stupid decision when I wanted a pet I could handle, a pet that liked to be handled and I knew this and I still called my mother (who I wasn't even speaking to after an argument earlier today) and said "Where are you? I need a lift because I'm buying a hamster."

So. This whole decision came about very quickly and on a crazy whim, because after the fight with the woman I walked up to Pets at Home and contemplated the wall of rodents for a while. A long while. I was starting to twitch every time a member of staff walked past, waiting for them to kick me out. And there were rats there, beautiful black and white Dumbo rats which I would've bought there and then if I could've found a cage the right size but I've been looking for months and I'm concluding that really, one does not exist. Not that's big enough for two rats but just small enough to fit in the space I have. I'm bitter over this (because I have plenty of space dammit!) and will be bitter until I have my own place and room enough for pet rats but there just- there aren't enough rats cages out there to find the right size. There aren't.

There were two cute gerbils there which sorely tempted me but again, I couldn't see the right sort of cage on hand and the info said they could live up to four years, which is 1-2 years longer than I was really looking for. This is after I've just read that Roborovskis can live up to 3 1/2 years. Which, when the info leaflet said two, is something of a surprise. Yeah. But.

But. There was one of these, sleeping in a tiny huddle and I'd never seen anything so wonderful in my entire life. It was like a tiny, tiny baby barn owl in colour and like a golf ball with legs in size and was totally, totally wonderful. I've never really seen the appeal of dwarf hamsters before but this one was the most adorable thing in the entire pet store. The staff said he was used to being on his own (he was the only one in the cage) but he'd need to be handled more because of it. Fine by me. I left, thinking maybe I'd go back tomorrow and get him if he was still there, got ten minutes toward the bus stop still thinking about it and idly mused that such a tiny pet should have a big name to make him feel bigger and he looked like a mini barn owl, so Barnabas would be adorable.

Which was when I realised that I'd already decided. Half an hour later I was walking back out the pet store with a cage, sawdust, hamster food and a tiny, tiny hamster in a box. Which is currently in his cage to serve as a house because I foolishly forgot to buy one on top of everything else.

Today has confirmed, if nothing else, that I am completely and totally batshit. I'll try to get a picture later on when he wakes up. God. I just bought a frickin' hamster after swearing that I wouldn't. And my mother's barely spoken to me since because she thinks I'm batshit too and doesn't like the hamster enough for the cute to balance out her self-righteous parental fury right now.

But I love him. He's wonderful.

Comments

[make-a-move.livejournal.com]

Awwwww. It looks so tiny!

[clo.livejournal.com]

He really is; a golf ball might actually be bigger than him. He keeps trying to climb on top of the box in his cage which is only a few inches tall and he can't reach. It's pathetically adorable.