12:50 a.m. - 2004-11-27
Elvis Had A Bad Day
After 12 years, Elvis* lost a fight with a hamster. Now she's injured, and I feel so guilty and sorry for myself (and her, of course).
* Elvis is my ball python. She has markings that look like sideburns. I didn't know she was a girl until a few months after I got her.
So here's what went down today:
I got up, did my overtime, got a call saying my new eyeglasses were ready, went and picked them up, and swung by the pet store on the way home.
Elvis only likes hamsters. In recent years, I've grown a bit less cold-hearted towards anything that falls in the "All of God's Cute and Fuzzy Creatures" category, although I still don't want to raise hamsters myself.
So I get home, and like always, I put the hamster into the cage with Elvis. Then, Elvis did something monumentally stupid: she struck at the carpet in her cage and got her teeth stuck.
Dork.
I had to get the hamster back out and into its little plastic holding cell. Then, it took me a good half hour to convince the snake to stop coiling around the carpet. I was about to sprinkle cold water on her head when she finally let go of it. I put a new carpet down in her cage, put the Elvis on top of it, and turned the hamster loose in there again.
That was my mistake. I think the carpet incident really tired Elvis out. I left the room, because I don't like watching her kill little animals anymore, but after 5 minutes, I still heard movement, so I went back in to see what the ruckus was. Elvis had struck the hamster and either missed or not been able to hang on and coil. A great battle had ensued, and I could only watch. I felt like such a heel, but I could only watch.
This whole time, Packet's watching from the bed, the chair, and in a prairie-dog stance on the floor. She must have thought it was like National Geographic for cats or something.
After a couple more minutes, the hamster walked away, over to the other side of the cage, and I put it back in its holding cell again. It had blood on it, but I couldn't tell if it was Elvis's or the hamster's. I put a fresh dish of water in with Elvis and left her alone, since she'd had enough excitement.
The hamster went outside. Rocco made a beeline for it as soon as I walked away. Which is fine with me, for some reason.
I called a pet clinic that I know deals with snakes, but the Exotic Pet Doctor isn't in until tomorrow.
I just feel so shitty about this whole situation. I'm worried that Elvis may have lost one or more fangs either in the carpet or the hamster. If that happened, I'll have to find a new home for her. I know that I do not have the ability to kill her food for her.
Blue was cool tonight for a while. I spent the evening eating popsicles, then let him in, and he was nice enough to sit on my lap and purr when I said I needed a friend. I let him out into the cold a little while ago, but he didn't give me The Look this time. So far, he hasn't proven to me that he can use a litterbox, even though he's so domesticated in every other way (with the exception of begging).
So I'm heading off to bed now. Hopefully, tomorrow won't be so crappy. Elvis's breathing is normal, and she's moving around at least once an hour, so I'm thinking that if she seems to really get worse I can take her in tomorrow; otherwise, I'll keep my eye on her for a few days, then go out and get a smaller hamster.
I don't even want to think about that right now, though.
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