R.I.P George and Doris

Last night when I picked up George the hamster I noticed that his abdomen was rather bloated and there was a huge mass in the centre. So it was off to the vet for a one-way trip today. Good thing I did, too, because the mass was even bigger this afternoon, and he would have seriously started to suffer soon.

He was just short of two years old, and I was hoping that with proper care he could stick around for the better part of another year.

Then this afternoon I discovered that Doris the Chinese hamster had become an ex hamster. We had no idea anything was wrong with her. We don't know how old she was, but Chinese hamsters can live for up to 4 years so we thought we had lots of time left. Doris was really special - Chinese hamsters are rare enough (allegedly their breeding prowess in captivity rivals that of giant pandas), but most of them are brown. Doris was white (with a black dorsal stripe and big black eyes) and was a very pretty little girl with her own fan club.

Both of them will be sadly missed. :-(