Thursday, January 19, 2006
"It's not just me" and How the Terminator Became My Role Model
<== Where's Tink?!?
So here is an email discussion on the HoneyHams webgroup page that I jumped into, and
I thought I'd post it here, because it is such a great illustration of the kinds of things that run
through our heads as we watch our little pets do things, and if we didn't have anyone to ask,
such things WOULD drive us crazy.
See! See! It's not just me!!!!
> On 1/18/06, lovebug_whs lovebug_whs@y...
> wrote:
> > Hey. My Ham Napoleon is doing fairly well. I just have one question.
> > He LOVES flaxseed.. he really dives into that first. He eats other
> > things, but only when all the flaxseed is gone, lol. I make sure he
> > eats other things, but is there any harm in letting him eat lots of
> > flaxseed? I know it's on the safe list, but still! Thanks :)
>>> I would like to know the answer to this too! My four girls do the
> exact same thing when presented with flaxseed, turning into little
> hammy vacuum cleaners. We only give it to them about once a week but
> it almost seems to be the hamster equivalent of catnip!
>> Thanks,
> Ellen
So this is what I was thinking, and wrote back:
Are they ACTUALLY eating it, or just putting it in their pouches?
Has anyone else found it's really hard to tell what their hamster is ACTUALLY eating? Mine usually just vacuums everything up into her pouches and runs away. When she actually is eating something -- like, I can hear her chewing on a seed or nut -- then it's often really hard to find out what she's got, because she turns her back to me when eating / or the item is small and in her paws / or sometimes I swear she's actually just moving it from pouch to mouth (usually when she's resting or napping) directly, in which case it's impossible to tell what she's actually gnawing on. Very funny, though, to hear her chewing on something, and look over, and see that she appears to be doing it in her sleep!
:-) teresa
Five minutes later, I remembered something else:
Oh, and sometimes, when I could swear she WAS eating/drinking something -- like she's sitting there with a slice of squash in her paws, taking little bites, looking like she's completely enjoying her meal -- only to find her the next minute in her house, regurgitating little chunks of squash into her "stash"! So she was pouching it, and not eating it, like I thought! And once, I thought she was drinking up her medicine most obediently -- TOO obediently -- so I watched her a little longer, and sure enough, she brought it all back up once she was back in her cage -- soaking herself,and then she had to dump out all her snacks from her pouches, which had gotten wet, too. Thank GOD little children don't have such pouches....can you imagine????
hee hee,
:-) teresa
See. Since I've started participating more in this group -- like asking questions more -- you may have noticed that the level of blog-writing has gone down as a result.... But it's a good thing. Here, I just ask, and don't get answers.... There, people sometimes actually have answers. The trick, I've found, is to treat it like my blog -- just write and don't worry about whether anyone answers or not, and don't take it personally if they don't. Recently they have been, but if I talk too much, maybe they won't anymore, and then I'll just have to wait a bit and then talk again.
My new motto -- from a radio interview with a Korean-American writer who I can't remember the name of -- "To be successful, you have to be like the Terminator. Relentless -- without pity, and without remorse."
I find that this has been VERY VERY useful for almost any pursuit of almost any goal -- whether it's trying to make friends, looking for a job, or wondering what the hell is wrong with your hamster! It's also good self-talk if you tend to be timid, like me, and tend to talk yourself out of lots of things you want to do. I just saw Last Holiday this weekend and it made me cry like a baby. Like, when the Georgia Byrd character was standing there saying to her reflection in her mirror "Next time around, we're not going to be so scared all the time. We're going to take chances, we're going to really LIVE!" I doubt I was the only one crying, too. It's that double tragedy, of finding one HASN'T lived, and finding it out too late, which cuts me up. Luckily, it's not too late for me -- just like it wasn't too late for Georgia Byrd!
Carpe diem!
(That's my other motto, and it's much shorter, but oh so less specific!)
