Saving Sunny

I'm torn between telling this amusing story and keeping my dignity...but, I think I'll opt for the amusing story!

It was a dark and stormy night....well, dark anyway. Our ten year old daughter came into our bedroom, her little fuzzy hamster was hanging by it's teeth from her index finger. She was frantic, to say the least, and although it hurt, was mostly worried that her hamster was dying.  We jumped out of bed and pryed her hamsters little jaws apart, freeing her finger. Randy tended to the bloody finger, while I assessed the hamster.

...I know that so far, my story isn't that amusing, rather, it is sort of tragic, but I will try to get to the embarrasing, I mean amusing, part soon...

I could hear my poor daughter, sitting in the bathroom, crying her eyes out at the thought of losing her beloved pet. This tore at my heart-strings! My brain kept saying, it's just a five dollar hamster, but Sunny was Allie's friend, they played together every day and this little hamster was in big trouble.

Sunny lay almost lifeless in the palm of my hand, and I couldn't even tell if she was alive. I got Randy's stethoscope from the closet to listen for a heart beat or breathing sounds, which were faint. She appeared to be dying right before my eyes. The mother in me snapped into action. Thinking that she may be choking, I rolled the little hamster onto her back and gave her stomach a few upward thrusts, to no avail. I elevated my efforts and did a little "hammie heimlich" maneuver, which was done by encircling the hamster under her front legs, with my thumb and finger closed around her middle. I shook her by thrusting her downward several times, hoping to dislodge a possible foreign object. Still the little hamster lay, alive, but disturbingly still.

Here is the part you've been waiting for....

I could still hear the sobs from the bathroom as I worked on poor little Sunny. Now was the time of decision...would I, could I, do mouth to mouth on a hamster?!  My instincts just took over, I didn't have time to think, just act, and yes, I put my mouth over the little hamsters face, around her mouth and nose, just as I was taught in CPR class, and gave her several light, very small, puffs of air. I couldn't believe it, it worked! Sunny was noticeably breathing again, not normally, but greatly improved. I told Allie that all we could do now, is put her back in her cage and check on her in the morning. I took her back to her cage and opened the door, but just before I put her in, she lurched for the cage door, fell from my fingertips, and landed with a SMACK, right on my foot. To our amazement, a large kernel of corn popped from her mouth and shot across the floor. That was it! She was cured! We put her in the cage and she hopped into her wheel and started running like nothing had ever happened!

Disaster averted!! But what had just happened? Then I realized.....I JUST HAD MY MOUTH ON A HAMSTER!!!!! GROSS!!!!!  I hurried back into my room and grabbed for my toothbrush. I brushed my teeth and washed my lips, face, hands and arms, up to the elbows, then I brushed again, and more washing...I couldn't shake the memory of hamster fur on my lips. (Just typing this makes me want to brush and wash, and this was 14 years ago!) Then I started to laugh...and I laughed....and I am still laughing as I recall the events of that night.

Sunny was Allie's friend for several more years, but she and I had a special "hammie-mother" bond, from that day forward. I sort of wish I knew ahead of time, that all I had to do was drop her.