Born 25th October 2004, she died at about 21:10 on Wednesday 9th May 2007.
She was a very good pet ... this is her story.
When we got Nibbles she was small, and very lively. She was a christmas present in 2004 though we got her on boxing day. The lady in the pet shop told us that her birthday was on the 25th October. The first song she ever heard was a christmas song, sang on the radio in the car on the way home. We had quite a job taking her home for she kept on pushing at the lid of the box she was in, trying to escape.
She became very tame and every evening we cut up some fruit and veg (her favourites were dried banana and red pepper) and put them in a small bowl for her. She gave us lots of laughs but the funniest and most memorable of them all was when she moved her nest up to the first level in her cage (she had two levels with wee ladders leading up to them). One evening we were watching her do hamsterly stuff in her cage when she rushed over to her nest. She stuffed what seemed like a sackful of bedding into her pouches and her mouth and tried to make her way to the first ladder in her cage. Her mouth was so full she couldn't see where she was going so she crashed into all the walls in her cage. She eventually found her ladder and stumbled up it, tripping up and almost falling off in the process. When she got to the top she arranged all her bedding into a neat, wee pile. She repeated this with the other loads, though they were even more full than before and bedding was sticking out of her mouth. Before long almost her whole nest was up on the level and she started arranging it so it would be pleasent to sleep in and comfortable. We were still in a fit of laughter in our beds that night but not as much as the next morning when we found out she had got fed up with sleeping up there already and had moved her nest back down again. The silly wee thing.
She spent the rest of her life making us laugh and cheering us up, until the beginning of 2007. She still acted like before but she made us feel really sorry for her and scared. She started bleeding down at the rear end. We found stains in her nest and on her bowl. Every time we held her we had to hold her on a tissue. We took her to the vet to see what was wrong. She wasn't pleased when she was being examined and very gently nibbled the vet but she took her first dose of antibiotics very obediently. She couldn't really feel her legs and they slid all over the place every time she walked.
The antibiotics worked a treat but after a while she started struggling to climb up the ladders so we took them out. She struggled to eat and drink after a few weeks and everything she did was slow and she wobbled all over the place. Then was a worrying time for us. She slept all day and all night. She didn't go out of her nest at all.
She wouldn't eat or drink anything and she was very cold. One night I stroked her and held her and she didn't stir, though she was still breathing. My sister took her and after a few seconds she came through to me and my mother. "She's dead," she said and I looked at her. She was completely still. We took her through to my dad to see what he thought about the situation. As soon as he said "Aww, tootsie." I knew for sure that she was dead. My dad went out and buried her in the garden. He put a brick to mark where she was and the few following days, me and my friends collected flowers to place on her grave.
Do not pouch a pearl
Or you will drown at sea
And never see me.
Nibbles you're my friend,
Your life will never end
And if you stay with me
I'll shelter you like a tree.
by Emily Hope
When we arrived back she went on an explore around her cage. It was a rat cage as we thought Hamster cages were too small for such a lively animal. The next day was her first day out of the cage. We decided to use and old wrapping paper tube to get her out so we wouldn't have so much bother with her later on. The plan was to let her climb into the tube and then quickly bring the tube over to the bed where she would then clmb out onto the nice soft mattress but things didn't quite go according to plan. We were just bringing her over to the bed when all of a sudden she dived out of the other end and had her first ever flying lesson. She didn't seem too alarmed, though I almost screamed!
Her first birthday was great. We made her a wee birthday cake and put a candle on it. We invited some friends over and had a wee birthday party for her. We took a photo of Nibbles leaning over to the cake. She actually looked like she was blowing out the candle! We gave her a packet of dried banana to celebrate. Her first christmas brought us laughs as well. We let her wander around and guess what. She pouched some tinsel. We later found it in her nest. Was that her version of decoration? When we had unwrapped some of our presents Nibbles tried to pouch some of the wrapping paper but we got it off her so she couldn't.
