Princess Fiona

I don’t know what I’m thinking sometimes. I guess the thought was I don’t have enough input in my life with 3 kids, 1 husband, volunteer work at the school, volunteer work outside the school and a newly acquired job. So since I don’t have enough stimulation in my life, we added… a Hamster. Yes, we now have a pet, as of yesterday.

Every morning I have been awakened to “Mom, mom, mom, mom, can we get pets today?” If not awakened by, it surely was the immediate topic at breakfast and was repeated throughout the day, in particular by Son#3. If he doesn’t ask for a pet, he asks me to have another baby, and that factory is closed. No more babies in my house. In an absolute snit one day a couple weeks ago he yelled, “I am sick of being the littlest person in this house! Why couldn’t you have me first?!” Hence, I gather, the need for a pet… the need for something smaller than he in this house.

Yesterday I finally caved after giving thought and e-mailing Anita at Fighting Inertia. Having a Hamster for her boys, she was a treasure trove of knowledge. Off we set to the store in search of a ‘teddy bear’ hamster. They had one. We now own it. It’s a she, they promised me she is not pregnant, and she is brown.

Hunting for the name was a real delight. (sarcasm noted here)

The first name dropped by Son#3 was ‘Oreo’. Did I say this hamster is brown? I told him no, think again. Come to find out, the little girl next door has a black and white hamster named Oreo. So much for originality from Son#3.

Next name dropped by my youngest was… naming it after him. My only surprise there is that this was not his first choice since he seems to think that the solar system revolves around him ‘The Son’ and not ‘The Sun’. I told him, no, it’s a girl, we need a girl’s name.

Third name bandied about also pegged the origination meter… Brownie. Yeah, that wasn’t happening. I could see this rodent dying, our getting another brown hamster, naming it Brownie 2 and 30 years from now we’d be reminiscing about all the ‘Brownies’ we owned. Wasn’t going to happen.

Names are being thrown all over now, anything dealing with Harry Potter was brought up, with my eldest sitting strong on Unsu (pronounced oonsue), which is a black belt kata performed meaning 'cloud hands'. Cool thought, I liked the sound, but the younger two wanted nothing to do with it. ‘Teddy Bear’ was brought up. Beeeeenh, wrong answer. It was suggested I go on-line and look up the Japanese translation for both Hamster and Teddy Bear. That wasn’t happening.

Then someone came up with the name… Fiona. And it stuck. So we now have a very cute girl hamster named Fiona. And, yes, the stories have already started.

I was awakened this morning by Son#3. “Mom! We are making balls of stuff for Fiona to chew and putting it in her cage”, he said. “Really?”, I replied, “And what are you making this ball out of?” “Aluminum Foil”, was the answer, to which my husband bolted out of bed to save Fiona from her keepers. They now know, paper and cardboard only. No foil.