What A Ham!

Two of them, in fact. Otter finally spent her birthday money!

This is Nadine. It's a Stephen King reference, anyone who has read his tremendous book The Stand will get it. (Otter was thinking Raven for the name, the bad guy's alternate form is a raven. His girlfriend's name is Nadine and since the hamsters are females...).

This is Helena. I'm not sure why, but Otter will enlighten me I'm sure!

Nana, they are not mice! But they will be moved out of Otter's room when you visit so you won't have to worry about them.

Otter has been wanting hamsters for a long time, she nearly got them instead of parakeets a few years ago. In hindsight, she probably should have gotten hamsters. She finally decided to see if she could talk her father into letting her get them, and he agreed. She did the research she knew he would ask for, that was last week's activity. Then she called Petsmart and got prices, and also we checked on how they get along since she wanted two of them. We made a trip Friday after work to look at cages. Then she got all of her information together and talked to Bill. And we went to Petsmart today to get them. So far, no interest in them by either dog. Frasier very rarely goes into Otter's room anyway. The girls will not be taken out of the cage if the dogs are in the house, Otter's door will probably be shut even then but the girls won't be taken out a lot. Who am I kidding, Otter will play with them as much as she can! They are pretty well socialized and seem to like people already. They have a life span of about 1 1/2 to 2 years, but Otter's pocket pets generally live a longer life than usual. At least, the mice did. Mice usually live 1 to 1 1/2 years, only one of hers died under two years. One of them lived over 3 years, which is extremely rare.

They are Russian Dwarf hamsters and are about as big as they will get. They might get just a little bigger. They are pretty hand-tame and since they have been raised together, they should get along. Hamsters don't always like other hamsters, unless they have been raised together. It's nearly impossible to introduce another hamster into an existing cage.

I'm sure we know who this clown is! The white part on the side that looks like a circle cut out of the picture is actually the part of the rain barrel that was between me and Frasier. No Maggie picture today, the camera battery died just as I was attempting to take a picture of her. She was nose to the ground in search of a mole. Frasier was probably checking to see if we'd finished mowing the yard.

They're blooming! This is against the back of the house.

Wider shot of the back of the house.

A close-up. They are just starting to bloom and they are going to be absolutely georgeous this year. Quite a few of the ones I transplanted last year are blooming, it can take them a couple of years to bloom after being moved but mine have always bloomed the first year after transplantation. That might be because they are well-established bulbs in the first place and not new bulbs. I know, rhizomes not bulbs! But bulbs is easier.