Alvin

We have a hamster.  We’ve had him for about 3 days now, and the kids like him quite well.  Isabel picks him up and walks around with him quite frequently.  Sam is less demonstrative, but he likes him, too, I think.  I’m not sure if we’ve got him temporarily or permanently.

Correction – Alvin is a Guinea Pig, not a Hamster. My bad.

He belongs to my wife’s sister, and her family.  She’s got three kids, and the oldest is about a week younger than Isabel.  After they got the hamster, a couple of the kids got rashes.  She’s not sure if that was a cause or just a coincidence.  So, they might want Alvin back, they might not.

Alvin.  Well, of course.  There’s not really that much of a difference between chipmunks and hamsters, and if you’re going to name your hamster (isn’t that a silly word: hamster?  It sounds like it should mean somebody who likes ham a lot.) after one of the chipmunks, it might as well be Alvin.  I would be willing to bet that there are not as many hamsters named Simon or Theodore, even though those would be fine names.

Come to think of it, Alvin could be more like a Britney, Janet, or Eleanor.  We don’t know.  But, I’m going to continue using the male pronoun, since his name is Alvin.

Whether he’s with us temporarily or permanently, I’m O.K. with it either way.  He’s harmless enough.  Mostly he likes to just stay inside his little house, and I’m pretty sure that that is a common characteristic of hamsters (and guinea pigs).  Not particularly sociable creatures.

They are sort of like cats, in that way.  And, they’ve got soft, cuddly fur.