Family...Meet Chocolate Chip. Chocolate Chip, meet family.

I have been threatening for awhile now to post about the hamster mania that overtook our house awhile back. My little angel girl decided for last Christmas that she wanted a hamster. She and her best friend both wanted a hamster. They wanted matching little hamsters from Santa Claus for Christmas 2007. They wanted matching hamsters that could wear little matching headbands, matching outfits with matching cages. It wasn't really like a want, it was more of a desperation. I began to talk to her about how savvy Mr. Claus was, that he would NEVER give a live animal for a child that didn't know anything about hamsters, and who was too young to care for them properly. No sirree. The fat man would NEVER let that happen. No way, no how. Let's spell it together...Give me a B. Give me an A. Give me, ok it's a long word. Backfire. She checked out every book in the school library about pets, hamsters, rodent populations in general, etc. She then talked about little else. Seriously, I was worried about her mental health if the big guy didn't come through. It was tough stuff. Well, S. Claus came through bigo timo, for both of the girls. She cried for real tears of joy when she saw him under the tree in his cute little cage. She nearly passed out from excitement. It was seriously touching to see her level of excitement. Truly. Then the unthinkable happened. He got wet tail and died. We drove to Pendleton (no pet store in our town) and bought a new one on a week night asap after it happened. He was cute and we loved him nearly as much as Hammy. His name was Peanut Butter. Peanut Butter was a freaking wimp. Little sucker only lived less than a week. Weak. SO, we took off during spring break last year and came up with this little dude, Chocolate Chip. He is really quite cute, doesn't smell, and has been a nice little addition to the fam. Really. (And for those of you who know me well, I don't do indoor animals, or stink of any kind....and he's really not bad at all.) He's cute as can be, and he's made my little sweet pea one happy hamster owner.