So, after just having moved here, I’m being taken to another home.

Please visit me there.

Of my childhood, I do not remember much except that, before my human got me to where I am,  I used to live in a place that is so crowded I sleep with other hamsters’ feet on my face.  Also, imagine some 20 or more hamsters converging on a little food bowl during dinner time.  I was lucky that even with those living conditions, I developed a healthy, robust body.  I can stand several hamsters on their head (or their backs) to get my food.

I would like to think that is the reason why my human chose me to take home.  After all, I’m a real charmer, with my black button-like eyes and soft tawny fur.  Or perhaps, I was the only one who showed that I’m eager to get out of that hole.

But I wasn’t the only one who seemed to be getting out at that time.  In a while I found myself sharing a new, clean niche with another hamster whose fur seemed to change color, depending on how and where you look at it.  Sometimes he look chocolatey (uh oh, the forbidden food!) with creamy patches.  Other times he looked plain grey with off white hair that seemed to be always unkempt.

Human called her Pao Chi.  I find it too cutesy and highly unsuitable for someone who looked like that.  Human has her quirks.  Oh well.

After a while of living in our new, strange but clean quarters, with fresh food and water daily (unlike where I came from in which the food bowl also has the poops of 20 something hamsters. Ewww), I find the companionship of Pao Chi comforting.

Unfortunately, Pao Chi succumbed to an unknown disease and died on me last March 5.  Tsk, tsk.  My conjecture is that it was due to Wet Tail.  But, of course, how would I know really?  Human took her away the moment she was seen lying down ill and apathetic.  Seeing her being lifted away to a Place Beyond already is a foreboding that I might not be seeing her again.

And so it was just me, myself, and I for the past few weeks in that very orangey hole.  Human seemed sad, though.  But she still scooped me up every now and then, perhaps checking if I, too, had the Wet Tail.

For my part, I was just glad that she didn’t forget to fill the food bowl everyday.  Haha.

While on a pile of pine shavings or sweating it out on the exercise wheel , I always find myself in a state of quandary. Who am I? What am I doing in this place? Is this the entirety of the world? What purpose do I have? Whose hand it is that constantly encroaches in my space, either to scoop me up or to bring my provender?

Oh yes, I’m a ruminating animal.

I even ask, “how should I even introduce myself to those who want to know me?”

Am I simply a pet? A companion? A grain-chugging bedroom fixture?

Ah, the questions never run out.

I think for now it will be enough to answer one: who am I?

And so I say, “Hi, I’m Coco the hamster. Welcome to my blog.”