I used to raise two hamsters as pets. They were adorable creatures. Their little bodies and lovely expressions were incarnations of cuteness. Whatever they did was a feast for my eyes. One thing I hated about them, though, was that they often smelled bad. From time to time, I had to deodorise their den and to use a special kind of sand to clean their bodies. One of them was female; the other male. I had supposed that since they were opposite sexes, they should get along well. I was wrong.

One day as I was cleaning the two creatures, I found a lot of wounds in the male’s body. Oh, that was so cruel. As the days and weeks wore on, the female hamster got fatter and fatter than her male counterpart. While the female was feasting, her humble partner just stood by. He did not dare to touch the meal.

I took them apart, putting them in two houses. Some days later, an amazing thing happened. A litter of 7 hamster babies were born.

Having done some searches online, I learned that a female hamster tends to become aggressive and attack other hamsters when she is pregnant. One fact that left me aghast was that a mother hamster often eats her babies if she is hungry or if they smell too much of humans. The discoveries helped me to take better care of my creatures. Still one day I counted the babies and found one missing. I could not accept the fact that it had been eaten alive by its own mum. The knowledge sent chills down my spine.

Gradually the babies grew fur. My parents gave most of them away to their friends after they were old and strong enough. I kept just one until it died of natural causes.