Wallaby

At least that's his/her name for now. Amanda and I purchased a rabbit on Saturday, following the death of our last hamster, Ibis. Ibis died after a two month long separation from her cage sister, Alpaca. There was little love loss between the two, as Ibis tried to kill Alpaca on three separate occasions, at one point tearing her ear in two. Alpaca's death was probably due to repeated trauma due to attempted murder, and even after she was placed into a separate cage, she never really went back to her spunky hamster self. Ibis was a different case. Both Amanda and I believe that Ibis had a cancerous growth on her that eventually spread to every part of her tiny body. She began to swell up and on Friday night when I picked her up to let her run around on the floor (as she was wont to do, ain't old English cool?) she had already begun to get cold because of a general loss of circulation. It was somewhat upsetting because watching the death process has never been a favorite pastime, but Amanda and I put some warm things in the cage with which she could curl-up.

The following day we buried her in a trashcan (unfortunately the landlords didn't want her buried in a garden), helped Seth and Sandra move to their new home in Polaris, and purchased a mini-lop eared bunny. The animal technician said that he/she was too young to be able to determine if he/she was a he or a she, so we decided on once again naming him/her after an animal that neither of us would ever own. We thought about perhaps naming him/her platypus (veto by amanda), albatross (popular but eventually unseated) and then settled on Wallaby (or Wally for short). If I was more technologically advanced, I would indeed post pictures for all of you to see, but if you want to come and visit in person, just call ahead or show up and she/he'll be more than happy to see you.

Okay, I'm off.

A+

Andrew