RIP Simon

We bought a dwarf hamster about two years ago. We named him Simon. We bought a dwarf hamster because he was so darn cute. He was no bigger than a cotton ball. We brought him home, fixed up his new home/cage, and then we took him out to pet him. He jumped clean out of our hands, and, thanks to his size, he ran so fast I only saw a blur sprint behind the couch. I always had to have Brad help me catch him, because Simon was just so stinkin' fast! We often had to move furniture around just to find him and corner him. This happened two or three times before we gave up and just left him in the cage. In a blue moon Brad would put him in a little box, hold the box on his lap, and let the kids pet Simon's fur, but since Simon wasn't used to interaction with us, he was always frantically trying to escape our clutches. We had a hamster ball the size of a softball for the little guy, but then Nathan would either kick it or pick it up to throw it. It was just too much work, so we eventually gave up entirely.
I was always the one to change his stinky cage and filling up his food bowl. I can't say I was a big fan of Simon. He was just another chore. Then again, after writing the paragraph above I'm hard pressed to say he wasn't a big fan of us either.
Well, two or three days ago I was in the room with Kaeley for about five minutes or less. I came out and Nathan came running up to me and showed that in his little hand was... Simon. That boy had opened up the cage all by himself! I was so surprised to see Simon in Nathan's hand that I nearly jumped to the ceiling! As I encouraged him to quickly put Simon back in the cage and not do that again two things came to mind. First of all I hoped to goodness that Simon didn't jump out of Nathan's hand to run away, because if he did that was the end of it. There was no way I was going to catch him by myself. Then it occurred to me that Nathan had somehow caught a hamster that's usually pretty fast. Sure enough, about the time that I realized something was fishy, Nathan put Simon in the cage and the poor little critter flopped helplessly back onto pine shavings. Talk about the heebie jeebies! I get them every time I think of it!
Poor little Simon. I don't know what happened. I had been thinking he was getting old, so I'm not sure if he was slowing down and sick already or if Nathan somehow killed him by accident. Ugh. I'm getting chills down my back just thinking about it. Poor Simon.
Well, Nathan put the hamster back, shut the cage, and I pranced around the room in chills and tried to think of what to do next. Nathan came up to me and said, "Simon sleeping." He said it over and over and over again, as in his usual Nathan style. He was just saying it as in a matter of fact voice.
Kaeley came over, realized what was happening, and a dark veil seemed to cover her face. For a few minutes she tried to comfort Nathan by saying that Simon was indeed sleeping. That didn't comfort her I guess, because a minute later she was crying in my arms that Nathan had killed Simon. I tried telling her that I honestly wasn't sure what had happened to poor Simon. Well, she was sobbing in my arms, which Nathan saw, so he frowned and began whining, "Simon! Ooh... Simon! Simon sleeping!" He wasn't crying, but he made good show of it. I had both children falling apart in my arms and a dead hamster in a cage next to me.
I called Brad and told him what to expect. I could have taken care of the body if I didn't have Brad. I would have taken care of it by asking a manly neighbor or two if they were good with dead animals.
Well, to be honest I'm very sorry about poor Simon, but I'm relieved not to have another thing to clean. I got tired to changing a hamsters cage every other day when no one in our family played with him anyway. However, Kaeley has already asked about when we're getting our next pet, and I'm a sucker. We'll see if I can hold my ground. If she forgets about having a pet after a while I'll not mention it again. If she asks me a couple more times I don't think I'll be able to stand my ground.
Rest in peace, my little Simon. We appreciate you putting up with us for as long as you did.