DH grew up with tons of animals, and a few weeks ago, a friend of mine was getting rid of her DD's hamster, she has 2, suppose to be male, well, 1 wasnt! LOL...we took the mommy.
Friday morning I woke up and noticed that 1 of the plugs in Ziggy's cage was inside the cage...he has a mansion- tons of levels etc... anyway, we start looking around the house, find Ziggy behind his cage, curled up....Seems Spanky- (cat) had some fun with Ziggy. I think maybe DD's left the plug not totally in, and ziggy hit it with his head, and it fell in...ziggy then got out, and spanky noticed him walking around the living room.
he was breathing kind of fast, had some wet marks on his back of his neck....I thought he died once when he went down his tube, and stopped 7/8 of the way...anyway- I put him in the small side of the cage, and disconnected it from the large. DH got home about 2 and said, can you just call the vet, and see if they can check her? So I bring her to the vets and the vet shaved the back of her neck...4 puncture wounds...and gave her a shot of antibiotic...ziggy sat up on her back legs and began cleaning her front feet. vet said good sign....well, this morning DH checked on her, and sure enough she died during her sleep. The vet said she doesnt seem to be in pain, as we were holding her, petting her etc.. she was not "playing dead" as they do when they are in pain or scared etc..
DD's and DH cried this morning, and I told them we would go to Petco tonight, and get another hamster...
DH had to go to work, and he said he just felt sad, ziggy was just starting to get use to the different house, and allowing us to pick her up and pet her etc...poor guy!
Brandy
Friday morning I woke up and noticed that 1 of the plugs in Ziggy's cage was inside the cage...he has a mansion- tons of levels etc... anyway, we start looking around the house, find Ziggy behind his cage, curled up....Seems Spanky- (cat) had some fun with Ziggy. I think maybe DD's left the plug not totally in, and ziggy hit it with his head, and it fell in...ziggy then got out, and spanky noticed him walking around the living room.
he was breathing kind of fast, had some wet marks on his back of his neck....I thought he died once when he went down his tube, and stopped 7/8 of the way...anyway- I put him in the small side of the cage, and disconnected it from the large. DH got home about 2 and said, can you just call the vet, and see if they can check her? So I bring her to the vets and the vet shaved the back of her neck...4 puncture wounds...and gave her a shot of antibiotic...ziggy sat up on her back legs and began cleaning her front feet. vet said good sign....well, this morning DH checked on her, and sure enough she died during her sleep. The vet said she doesnt seem to be in pain, as we were holding her, petting her etc.. she was not "playing dead" as they do when they are in pain or scared etc..
DD's and DH cried this morning, and I told them we would go to Petco tonight, and get another hamster...
DH had to go to work, and he said he just felt sad, ziggy was just starting to get use to the different house, and allowing us to pick her up and pet her etc...poor guy!
Brandy
He must be a very sweet, sensitive guy if he cares about a little hamster like that. 
Sad.
We have always had a hamster in the house. Our latest one, Rolf, DS got for Christmas. We always give our hamsters German names because hamster, in German, means "to hoard", which is what they do when they pack their cheek pouches. We had one hamster, Ludwig (which we loving referred to as Luddie), that suffered a popped eye (I guess it is something that can happen under a stressful situtation). I ended up taking him to the vet and he surgically removed the bad eye. Surgery and $75 later, Luddie was as good as new! He earned another nickname after that: "Popeye"!
Luddie lived another 1 1/2 yrs after his surgery. The things we do for our kids and pets!
Needless to say we sold the babies back to the store. We just love our hamsters and I would cry something awful if something ever happened to them. We've had several scares though. One of ours is pretty sneaky about getting out. Around Christmas time we got up to him hiding behind the tree (and the cat gave his location away). He done this again a few days later but my mom was sleeping on the couch and thought the cat had a mouse. Good thing she checked before going back to sleep. Our cat could have definately had him several times but she doesn't seem interested in eating him, just playing with him. Neither time has there been a mark on him Weird, I know. Ours are very personable too. We sometimes watch tv and let them crawl around on the couch and on us. Haven't lost one yet. 
