well, this is totally unexpected.

tonight will be the first night in about a year and eight months when i won't be startled awake at some point in the middle of the night by the distinct sounds of graham the angry siberian dwarf hamster madly running on his wheel or trying to escape his habitrail by gnawing on the bars in a ravenous fervor. i found him curled up in a still, quiet ball in his food dish this evening when i got home from work.

when damon passed away last summer (10 months ago to the day -- strange), i thought ahead to when graham would die, and i was pretty sure i wouldn't be too sad. where damon was sweet, tame and friendly, graham was sort of the sid vicious of the domestic-rodent world. but i'm pretty upset tonight. graham had personality, even if he was two ounces of pure, concentrated, furry evil. (and personality goes a long way, as long as you don't let the source of said personality bite you.) for example, two months ago, he was quite ill with some sort of random infection. i got him antibiotics from the vet, which allegedly made him better. me, i think the infection folded when it realized graham was just too mean to kill.

graham, graham, graham. i'll miss ya, buddy. i can see you in that big pet store next to the pearly gates up in the sky, doing your damndest to wriggle and nip your way out of st. peter's grasp, and then pooping in his hand when he finally gets ahold of you. even in hamster heaven, may you continue to raise hell.