Simon

Hi, I would like to introduce you guys to my most recent adoration: Simon. Well, I love him a lot that I would spend hours, literally, staring at him. That charming young lad is so captivating that I can't put my mind off thinking about him even in the midst of exam. Everyday, I would find every single excuse to see him and play with him. And he peed on my cheet sheet that I was supposed to bring along for my Math examination. Well, that is Simon - a bubbly hamster which I had procured two weeks back. Here is a photo of him in his sleeping den, fashioned out of a tissue toilet roll and cushioned with well, more tissue:

My bad. The photo quality is at best, inferior to any camera-phone but you still have a good idea of how he looks like up front, right? 2 minutes of wiki-searching has revealed to me that he is a Dwarf Winter White Russian Hamster but visual inspection suggests more gray fur area than white. It can't really be helped though since the dull coat is what these hamster sport during the summer season that is perpetually never-ending in the Singaporean context.

Anyway, isn't he just cute? Measuring at a respectable 9 cm, he is one of the most quick-witted dare-devils I have ever met. There is no opportunity lost in trying to get out of my hand (despite my best effort to sanitise every inch of the palm and fingers with soap before-hand) and into every nook and tiny dark slit of the room.

With an overpowering claustro-philic tendency, Simon manages to find himself in the most unusual places behind the fridge, under the bed, in the narrow slit between the photo frame and wall and worse, in a printer. Of course, I don't let him run wild all the time as he has a cage of his own. On top of that, he has this irresistible urge to leap of chairs, tables (and hands) regardless of whether what is awaiting him below is a cold, hard tile.

When it comes to eating, his favourite is sunflower seed kernel, which will be the first items to vanish among the variety of food he is offered everyday. With all the high content of saturated lipid in the seeds, it is no wonder that he looks much fatter than he was when I first brought him back from the pet store.

Yup, so much about Simon for now. See you then.