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Heather the Hamster

My ultimate thrift find

By Megan KingsburyPublished 3 years ago 8 min read
Top Story - April 2021
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The first time I got to hold Heather

I hate thinking of Heather as being a ‘purchase’. I often forget that I actually paid to have my little friend in my life. If anyone ever asked me ‘what do you think has been your best ever purchase’ I had maybe mentioned a new piece of filming equipment that had advanced my filmmaking or a new book that brought insight to a fictional world I loved, but now?

Irrefutably, undeniably, indisputably one trip to Pets at Home in the middle of lockdown in 2020 brought in my best ever purchase.

Since graduating from university in the middle of the Covid lockdown I had been struggling to find any way forward with work. Every possible door was closing in front of me. I began to feel very lost and even though I was lucky enough to be living with my parents, my younger brother and our two cats I felt more alone than ever before.

For a while I joked around about getting a hamster for extra company.

When I was younger all I wanted was a dwarf hamster, but that dream was crushed when on one visit to Pets at Home my dad told me that the dwarf hamster I was admiring was perfectly “bite size”. Yet years later the idea of having a little hamster in my life was very inviting, even the prospect of having to clean her cage regularly was exciting as it would become the closest thing I had to routine. You can tell what decisions were made during the lockdown. “Yeah I got a hamster because cleaning her cage and picking up her poop was the most excitement I got in the week”. Then again, we already had two cats - valuable members of the family - who might have taken this newcomer as an insult or a new toy.

Getting a hamster was simply an up in the air hypothesis that had me dreaming up scenarios where the two of us sat watching TV together as I spoilt her with cute woodland toys and treats.

Then it came to the most random spontaneous day in living memory. It was another locked down planless day, my brother headed to work, and my mum and I sat over lunch mulling over the usual mull of misery that came with lockdown blues when out of nowhere my mum blurted “do you want to go to Pets at Home today?”. My initial reaction was on the lines of “what do the cats need now?”. But as I am sure you have gathered my thrift find at Pets at Home wasn’t an exceptional cat toy.

In fact, our trip to Pets at Home that day was all research intended. Have a look around, see what we’d need to get if I was serious about taking on board another ball of fluff into the family, see what it would entail… yada yada ya… the boring stuff that makes you realise how you aren’t actually ready for the responsibility for another living being.

When we got to the shop this spontaneous day, I was sure the shop keepers thought that my mum had brought in a yelping puppy with my level of excitement and buzz. Without a moment to take in most of my surroundings I skipped along to the very spot in the shop that I was all too familiar with, thanks to the days in which I would visit the shop just to look at the hamsters I knew I couldn’t have. To my upmost disappointment however there were no hamsters in the little display cabinets. I saw a couple of dwarf hamsters, but by then I had decided that getting a Syrian hamster would be more appropriate as my first. So picking up a leaflet we went on a spree round the shop, heaving hamster toys and food and bedding (which is huge incidentally) and finally we settled on a cage. Even without a hamster, it was all becoming real.

Eventually at our tether we decided to ask someone for help, just to make sure that what we were actually picking up was for the right rodent in question.

“Are you ready to choose a hamster?” the lovely lad asked us.

I looked a bit stunned, almost as if I had been asked if I had chosen a baby name two days after discovering I was pregnant. He brought us over to the little homes of the patiently waiting hamsters and one by one he opened the glass doors and unearthed them from their deep slumbers within the wood shavings and planked shelter. There was probably the best part of four tiny hamsters per cabinet, all sleeping happily on top of each other. Of course, they were completely unaware that their comfy friends, should they be living together for longer than a couple of months, would probably start tearing each other up territorially because, long behold, these adorable breathing pom poms are actually vicious beasts when they get to adulthood.

The question was then, how do I pick the hamster? It’s not like going into a book shop where you see the book title and cover and if you like the look you can check the content by the blurb. Yeah, excuse me, that hamster there has cute fur, can I just check it’s tummy so I can read it’s personality? It doesn't work that way. The poor hamster doesn’t even have a title yet!

And this is where my thrift find comes in.

Heather's first paparazzi

I’m not entirely sure if Heather was my thrift find, or if I was her thrift find, but as all the other hamsters remained curled up fast asleep (bar one who was sleep eating a chunk of carrot) this beautiful white with ginger splodges hamster, at eye level, climbed up the inside of the glass door, half asleep and looked at me. After a moment of staring she started to paw at the glass as if she were determined that her tiny claws could break it open.

She’s mine. That’s all I could think. That’s all I think she was thinking too. I didn’t care what it cost, she was coming home with me. Wait, £10?! My little Heather cost me a meagre tenner!

But I came out the shop that day having spent just under £100. Yikes! How did it come to that?

Let me see:

  1. Cage: check
  2. Bed: check
  3. Bedding: check
  4. Wood shavings: check
  5. Food: check
  6. Bowl: check
  7. Water bottle: check
  8. Toilet: check
  9. Wheel: check
  10. Ball: check
  11. Tubing: check
  12. Toys: check

So how is this all a thrift find exactly? That alone had basically busted my feeble incomeless bank. Because, my dear readers, I have never once had to pay that sum of money ever again. I have had my gorgeous little Heather now for seven months and the biggest sum I have had to pay since then was a Christmas present of some more ‘playground activities’ to keep her occupied in her cage. Her bedding, food and wood shavings last months on end - I have only had to top them up once since I got them.

When I had woken up that morning I hadn’t dreamed that the next time I went back to my bedroom that it would be home to not just me - and my cat during the night - but also a little, noisy, and sometimes stinky but always adorable hamster. My brother had also left for work as normal as ever but returned home to discover that a noisy, nibbly ball of fluff had moved in to the bedroom next door.

I’ll put it out there straight. It’s a commitment having a hamster. The noise, the smell (for female hamsters anyway), the three bites I have ever got, the cleaning the cage once a week, the picking up poops out of her ball once she’s had a half hour run. But believe me when I say that I would never ever change anything.

You want to know why?

Because for a one time purchase of 80 odd pounds I have had happiness like I have not seen in so long. I have had memories, I have had love, I have had so many laughs and above all I have a friend. This little friend has not just been worth every penny to me, but everything to my family too. Heather has uplifted the weeds that were growing inside our house, poisoned by the negativity that the lockdown has brought and the general hardships of life. She has nicknames, she has stories, she has tropes. I struggle to find the words that will do justice to the joy and happiness that she has brought to me and my family, but I know right now that if I hadn’t brought Heather home I would probably be in a pretty dark and low place right now.

Heather became best friends with the cats

Heather is my best thrift find because I got a life of happiness for meagre pounds – and believe me, she is very much one of a kind.

hamster
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About the Creator

Megan Kingsbury

Author 📝Actress 🎭 and Film Director 📽️ by day

Animation 🎬 fanatic by night

Cosplayer 🖌️🪡 all the way in between

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