R.I.P. Nibbles

Well, our hamster kicked the bucket today. I now have three VERY sad little kiddos. We've had this one for quite awhile, so they were a bit attached, especially Kylie. Three hamsters in four years isn't bad, I think. I'm not sure what happened. He was fine this morning. He was even climbing around and hanging on the bars of his cage. Around 4:00 this morning (I only know the time because I was up feeding Luke), Nibbles somehow tipped over his cage and it fell off the shelf. Kylie was worried, but he seemed fine, and I told the girls we would clean up the mess in the morning. We left the cage on the floor, and the girls went back to sleep. This morning while Kylie and I were cleaning up the mess, we realized that he had pulled the edge of their bedroom rug into his cage and chewed a bunch of it up. There were hot pink bits of yarn all over his cage. He is famous for this, and will pull anything he can reach into his cage and chew it to smithereens (I'm not sure that is how you spell that) from hair ribbons, to Sunday School papers, to Polly Pocket clothes. We cleaned up the mess and returned him to his shelf. After lunch, the girls discovered his lifeless body. When I entered the room, there was Caitlyn clutching him to her with a panicked look on her face. My heart broke at the sight of their faces. :( Nibbles must have either died from blunt force trauma from the fall, or maybe the rug he ate this morning didn't agree with him. I'm not sure, but he was a very loved hamster and will be missed. He was definitely the hairiest and friendliest hamster we have had. Looks like we'll be making a trip to the pet store in the near future! Love you all, and thank you to God Almighty that we live longer than hamsters!