Friday, April 20, 2007

The miracle Diamond


This is all true.
Every bit.
Not pretty,or flattering in any way but true.

2 years ago Haley was showing her off her hamster Diamond to her Uncle David. When David left, Haley put Diamond back in her cage and went downstairs to watch TV. About 10 min later Lucy and Ruby came down the stairs and Ruby said "Mom, Lucy keeps dunking and dunking her". I looked at Ruby's hands and there was a soaking wet, drowned hamster with her eyes bulging out of her head. Ruby said they were just trying to give her a bath in the sink.

I lost it. My mind was racing. How could my child have Killed an animal? They did this to get back at Haley for showing off her pet! They know better! I started screaming ERIC!!!!!!! I needed him keep me from hurting someone. I handed him the hamster and tried to get control of myself to talk to the girls. Haley was crying, I was furious and sick to my stomach and Eric just disappeared. After a while of calming Haley down and trying to figure out exactly what happened. I went into the kitchen and found Eric bent over the sink blowing air in the hamsters nose. "What are you doing?!!! Eric said "trying to save my daughter from having this on her conscience for the rest of her life". The thing was dead and had been for at least 2 min.

Eric kept blowing on it and I figured he was trying to show the girls that life is valuable and you try to save it. After a few more minutes you could actually see the heart beating. After a few more minutes you could see the lungs moving. After a while longer it started to move. He dried it, I cleaned out the cage and put some fresh fruit in it. Eric said she would probably would not make it through the night, but at least the girls saw her moving.

The next day she was still alive. I expected to see her running into the wall or trying to put food into her ear with brain damage, but she was eating fine and acting fine. All our family/friends were giving Eric a hard time about giving a rodent mouth to mouth and calling him Dr. Doolittle. I Just couldn't believe that Diamond was alive and all was well.
****EDIT**** I should clarify- Eric never touched the mouth, he just blew air in it's nose.

Jump forward about 9 months. One of the girls asked me to get Diamond out of her cage. When I tried to get her, she bit me SOO hard I whipped my finger out of her cage as fast as I could. Unfortunately she still had her little teeth stuck in my finger so she came flying out of the cage and smacked the wall behind me and slid down. "Oh, no...I just killed Diamond" I thought. But no, she started walking around after she hit the ground. I seriously thought "This animal is indestructible".

Move forward to today. Lucy was holding Diamond playing as she often does...

(Photo from last week)

...when she says to me "look Mom, Diamond is sleeping in my hand". I quickly realized that she was dead. "Oh no... what happened?" I asked her. Lucy said "she just fell asleep". "Let's put her in her cage to sleep" I said. Later in the day when Haley came home from school I took her to Diamond's cage(without Diamond) to tell her what happened. Lucy came in and said "Diamond's dead, she was biting me so I squished her". I thought to myself "You have got to be kidding me, you killed this poor animal twice?"

This time, no yelling, no real reaction even. I'm just sad.

No more hamsters for us, ever.

12 comments:

Tasha said...

Oh Chanel. What a story. I love the picture of Diamond in the pink corvette. I am so sorry for the kids loss. I'm sorry it had to happen while you are single parenting too.
How are you sleeping?

jenny said...

I remember you telling me that story last July. Poor diamond is right. May he rest in peace. Hope Haley is okay.

Chanel Palmer said...

Tasha- I did actually sleep last night, nightmare and earthquake free. I think I was so tired that I would have slept through anything.

everything pink! said...

chanel.i am laughing so hard, in a good respectful way.
this story has got to be made into a children's book. oh my this is the greatest story. thanks for taking the time to write it down.
we are headed out the door to church....can't wait!

Liz said...

Oh my goodness! Chanel, this story is sooo sad and so incredible. Poor Haley. Poor you! I'm with you on the no hamster thing. Maybe a fish?

Anonymous said...

Daimond the Wonder Pet! Amazing story! Eric seriously did mouth to mouth? Unreal! I'm certain we would have counted our losses at that point ... I think that has to win him Father of Year in some major contest! Sorry that Diamond is no longer with you. May she rest in peace (she deserves it after all she's been through!).

Jill said...

Oh my this is quite the tale. I can't believe Eric gave it mouth to nose, that's awesome! I also can't believe you launched poor Diamond across the room and into the wall. Did Lucy really squeeze her to death? Poor Diamond, at least she had a good run at life and got several chances.

I love the picture of her in the Barbie car!

everything pink! said...

ok i can't stop thinking about this story. on our walk this morning i picked up a frog on the side of the road so the girls could have a pet for a day, because i feel like i may be depriving them of a kid-pet relationship.
seriously are you considering the childrens book?

Anonymous said...

My sister did the same thing to my sister's classroom gerbil. She was about 3 and knew she shouldn't have it out of the cage so she was hiding in the closet. When my sister came looking for her she was so scared she squooze him to death. My poor sister had to tell the class what happened. I am happy to report that they both turned out to be normal, happy well adjusted people and are still good friends. So I don't think it causes permanent scaring. What a great story! Love the mouth to mouth. Good to know for future reference that it might actually work!

melanie said...

We had a hamster one time growing up and my mom said the same thing, never again! He had some near death experiences too. Do all hamsters live on the edge?

And one day your girls will thank you for writing this down, they will laugh at the memory and with this as evidence they will have to believe you!

Poor Diamond, RIP!

Jordan said...

Yes, hampster are far to squeezable to be consider a "safe" house pet. We had them growing up. so sorry for the loss, but really, that story had me in stitches!!

Amanda said...

This is the funniest story I think I've ever read! Maybe your next pet needs a shell...like a turtle perhaps? The picture in the corvette is classic. Hope your girls are OK.

 
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