Life Lessons Wrapped in a Little Ball of Fur

When I was about 7 years old I got a teddy bear hamster named Binky. This was after multiple, failed attempts to keep goldfish alive, so I am not sure what my parents were thinking, but I guess they had faith in me.  I don't recall exactly what led to my interest in getting a hamster, but I have vague memories of a friend or neighbor having one and the cool, tube-contraption hamster funhouse that was popular in the late 1970's. 

We put Binky in a 30-gallon fish tank aquarium in my bedroom. Have you seen how big these are? It was a hamster kingdom! I filled it with cedar shavings, a wheel, affixed a water bottle and some food, and put in a homemade house. Binky was livin' large.

Now, given that we had a cat in the house, our grand plan to keep Binky safe was to keep my bedroom door closed at all times (you see where this is headed, right?) One day I entered my room to find the cat IN the aquarium. The cat and Binky were in an epic stare down, which for Binky must have felt like staring down Godzilla. I grabbed the cat and went running out of the room. 

Seeing that we needed a better plan, my Dad built a cover for the tank. My dad was handy around the house, but he was not a carpenter or a builder. Somehow he fashioned this cover with a wood frame and sturdy chicken wire to sit over the tank and protect Binky. The cat would have had to been MacGyver to get that cover off, so we felt pretty sure a crisis had been averted and the kingdom had been saved.

Hamsters live about 2.5 to 3 years, and that was true for Binky. I found him in his tank one day, mid-stride on the kingdom grounds, and at first I thought he was fine. As I approached the tank, though, he didn’t move. Hamsters don't really sit still for very long - ever - so I knew this was not right. 

We buried Binky in the backyard, in the corner of the garden formerly known as the goldfish graveyard. At the time I was sad, but I don't recall this being an overly traumatic event (maybe my fish experiences had prepared me a little). More likely, I had known his lifespan going in, so the fact that he lived as long as he could was acceptable to me.

Binky was a lot of fun. Sometimes I am in awe of my parents and what they let us kids do, but now I understand, as I gained so much from having Binky as a pet. I learned, at a pretty young age, how to care for another living thing (fish notwithstanding), I had responsibility for feeding him and cleaning his cage, I had to protect him, and when he died I learned just a little bit about grief. I didn't know it at the time, but these were all wonderful life lessons, wrapped up in a cute little ball of fur.