Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Tough Couple of Days


It's been a tough couple of days around our household. The other day my little one noticed the water in her fish tank needed changing, so she did a water change, added conditioner, and all seemed to be well until I found her two tiger barbs floating upside down the next morning. The filter pump on her little 2 gallon tank was unplugged, so I'm not sure if it was that or the water change that killed the fish. She had plugged it back in, but the plug was lose and must have fallen out over night. We cleaned out the tank thoroughly again, let it run for a while, then went to the pet store. This time she settled on 3 neon tetras and 3 glow-lite tetras. I think I had 5 neons in that tank when my brother gave it to me for my birthday years ago, so it was nice to see that familiar blue in the tank. Well, last night, my older daughter came downstairs with her dear hamster, Sugar, a long-haired black fancy hamster. She'd been fine earlier in the day, but now she was walking really weird, curving her backbone right, then left. She wouldn't eat or drink. I was hoping she'd be ok, but she went downhill after that, and sometime around 2:30 am this morning she died. I cried, just as I did when the little one's hamster died last June. I took care of her, then left a note by her cage to let my oldest know Sugar had died, and that now she was with Jesus, not in pain or suffering. She and the little one had some tears when they got up to see that Sugar had died, but they both handled it well (better than I, so it seems!). She gave us a year and four months of joy, and will be missed. Both pictures were taken earlier this month. The other hamster is our little one's 'new' hamster, Sandy, who replaced her dear Sqweakers in June. We knew Sugar was getting old as she was showing some signs of aging (weight loss, less active) but it was still tough to lose her. Our oldest had already decided that when Sugar's time came, she wanted to get another hamster (she's had mice in the past, too). So, she was busy today washing everything that was Sugar's to get ready for a new tennant. Oh, and we lost one of the neon tetras last night/this morning - looks like it got stuck in the little plant in the tank. So, like I said, it's been a tough couple of days. I hope the next few are better - I'm too emotional for all this!!

1 comment:

Mary said...

I hope your week goes better too. I just added a little prayer for you.
Hugs,
Mary