End of August 2008
Now, I love all animals. All my life I've happily shared a home with everything from gerbils, chipmunks, rabbits, guinea pigs, mice, rats, birds of every flavour, all manner of amphibians and reptiles and hoards of creatures with too many legs like tarantulas, giant cockroaches and escaping millipedes. All very peaceful and happy times. Well, perhaps not peaceful, but that's another tale altogether!
Only one type of animal bites me with annoying regularity. Hamsters.
I've never owned one but have 'hamster-sat' for others, and I always, but always get bitten. Properly bitten, with blood and pain. Needless to say, I am not a hamster fan.
I was unsuccessful in my attempts to get a more interesting creature. Rats aren't in the shops here, neither are mice (probably not cute enough for the Japanese market). Gerbils are rare too. A rabbit is too big; we don't have a suitable garden and it couldn't be a house rabbit as we have the cat.
Whatever we get will have to be shut away in a spare room. Rhiannon thinks she wants it in her bedroom, but I know through experience that rodents are nocturnally noisy, so that won't work. We see Sugar Gliders in cages, but I have no idea how to keep these gorgeous creatures and think it's sad for them to be caged. Other options are chinchillas – see above for reasons not to. Ditto degus, guinea pigs and chipmunks.
Nobody listens to me and we end up with Crystal.
Rhiannon is very pleased with her first "very own" pet. I showed her how to handle and care for Crystal. See how it happens? Tim promises a pet, and then has absolutely no idea what to do with it so it's all down to me…
The bloody creature bit me. Hard. But I will grudgingly agree these photos make her look cute.
