Thumb vs. Hamster

Abby's new pet hamster, Strawberry, has become quite the entertaining little creature. She's the first thing that Abby wants to see in the morning and the last thing she wants to say goodnight to before she goes to bed. I'm still currently working with Strawberry and trying to train her so she can be handled without nipping or biting...or freaking out and leaping to her ultimate death. So far, she's coming along nicely. She stopped nipping through the cage bars for the most part and I can semi-hold her when I transfer her from one place to another. Each night Strawberry comes out before the kids go to bed and she rolls merrily along in her clear plastic hamster ball around the living room floor. Abby then helps me put her back in her cage and we feed her a few cheerios, carrots, or apples through the cage bars as we say goodnight to her.

Well, this all seems all well and fine until something goes terribly wrong. Oh, don't fret. The hamster is fine. No leaps to her doom yet. However, Abby was not so lucky to come away unscathed tonight. When slipping her cheerios through the bars, Strawberry takes them and hoards them in her cheeks one at a time. Unfortunately, Abby had her thumb through the cage at the same time that the cheerio slipped and fell out of her fingers. Strawberry latched on to the first thing she could find. That was when all heck broke loose. Abby, that caring sweetheart that she is, got bit quite good on her thumb. Despite the pain, she picked up the cheerio that fell, continued to feed it to her dear little pet, and then proceeded to break down into an unstoppable strain of tears. Usually a bandaid and some mama kisses later, Abby would be fine. The problem? Her constant comfort when something hurts or goes wrong is to suck her thumb. Can you guess which thumb got bit? Yeah...that thumb. Every time she went to suck it, it bled like mad so we had to bandage it and hope it would stop. One hour later, she finally stopped sobbing enough to try looking at her thumb to see if it was well enough that she could suck it again. It was. Thank the good Lord above. She plopped that thumb in her mouth faster than lightning and finally began to drift to sleep between those annoying little left over sobs.

Josh and I were heart-broken for her as she fought the urge to suck that tiny thumb for comfort. Why, oh why did it have to be that thumb? But just so you know, all is forgiven. She went out after the bandaid finally came off to tell Strawberry goodnight. I suppose I better start working harder with the training. Bleeding thumbs suck. But when the bleeding thumb is the thumb you suck to make the world all right again...it really sucks.