Hi Friends!!!
I have everyone sound asleep...everyone except me...can't sleep...imagine that!!! It occurred to me that I forgot some of the most interesting events of the day!!!
When arriving home with the Malone kids and Cameron at 3:30, I was greeted with freaked out/hyper kids (Nate, Isaac, and Molly). Annie informed me that Fluffy (yes -- the female hamster we got two days ago!) had given birth and was eating her young. Can you say, WELCOME HOME, MOM!!!??? Nate and Isaac were just hyper and excitable, viewing it as a scientific experiment. Molly, our resident drama queen, was in hysterics over the whole experience!!! We all had a long discussion about how animals can be, and then we seemed to move on.
Fast forward...after our trip to Wiernerschnitzel...the boys insist that they can see babies that the mom is nursing. I chalked it up to wishful thinking, but sure enough LATE in the evening we discovered that she indeed had 5 more babies that she hadn't eaten and was taking care of!!! So, we were all thrilled and it took forever to calm down again. And then we had to take Teddy, the male hamster out of the cage, so that we wouldn't have anymore hamster cannibalism. Males will eat the young no matter what, so we were planning to mate the hamsters, and then remove the male hamster into another cage in a week or so. FYI -- female hamsters ovulate every 4 days and only carry the babies for 16 days. So, we figured within a week or two -- Fluffy would be pregnant. We just didn't realize we bought a pregnant hamster!!! I'm not upset, but the timing could have been better to say the least. I will call the pet store tomorrow, though, and see if they will give me a discount on more hamster supplies since they basically sold me a knocked up hamster!!!
Meanwhile, Teddy is in a makeshift cage made out of a rubber-maid toy bin. Don't worry there is ventilation. Because by the time we realized we had 5 babies, it was 10:40 and too late to go out and buy a cage anywhere. By the way, the mama hamster is joyfully running in her exercise wheel stopping by the nest every once in a while to nurse or check on her young ones. I don't remember having that much energy after giving birth, but Oh Well!
So, that's quite a story... and between that and Judi and all the kids --- it made for quite a day. Can't believe I forgot to blog about it earlier, but my brain was really frazzled then. I guess 7 kids and a severely injured BFF will do that for you!
I'm going to give sleep one more try... I'll have the boys post about the hamsters tomorrow as part of their schooling. It was funny, because today I felt bad that not much "learning" was done -- but God definitely provided our science class in animal husbandry today. And tomorrow we'll be continuing on that as well as doing some art projects to decorate Judi's hospital room.
Much Love,
Michele
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