Goodnight, dear Clementine

A special hamster who deserves a tribute on a bunny blog

This week, we lost a dear family member – Clementine the hamster. She lived with the eldest of the bunnies’ ‘mini servants’ and his partner, 50 miles from here, and slept through all but a few minutes of our visits, but it didn’t stop us adoring her. 

We loved receiving photos and videos of Clem, who never failed to make us smile.
The footage of her, especially during her free-roam time, revealed a little soul as intelligent, determined, and mischievous as any rabbit. 

She inspired us to learn about hamsters and we started following other hamster accounts, soon realising Clem had the best life any hammie could hope for – pawrents passionate about her welfare, with shift work suiting her crepuscular nature, and a cage layout so magical we’d have gladly shrunk to Clem’s mere 180g to live in that playground of hides, sprays, tunnels, sand baths, and deep bedding. Once when we visited, Clementine had burrowed to one of her hides with a chamber visible through the Perspex cage side, and we saw her snuggled up asleep – blissful! 

We also realised the many similarities between hamsters and rabbits: they’re crepuscular; they’re prey creatures (Clem’s pawrents should feel honoured to have gained her trust); their teeth grow continuously (requiring a suitable diet to wear them down); and their environment needs space, enrichment, and opportunities to forage and burrow. Also, sadly, like rabbits, hamsters are small, furry mammals, attracting impulse purchasing by people who don’t understand their needs, so many live in neglect, or end up in rescue centres. 

We know our rabbits’ lives are relatively short, but hamsters live for just a couple of years. Clem and her pawrents made the most of every day together, and she lived to be an elderly lady, in hamster years. Unfortunately, just as we’ve encountered indifference when we’ve told people a rabbit has passed, most won’t understand the grief – we know that’s their loss, they haven't had the chance to get to know a hamster. 

We’re privileged to have had a glimpse of Clementine’s life, and what a life she had! Goodnight, Clementine – we will never forget the joy you brought us.