Pinto the Hamster

On 17th July 2004 a litter of two hamsters were born, at West Hatch RSPCA Centre, to Snowwhite. I first set eyes on them at 12 days old, little black and white bundles curled up in the nest!

I watched them grow up over the next couple of weeks, they changed a lot in colour and got progressively lighter. They were sexed, there was one boy and one girl. I chose the boy and when he was 4 1/2 weeks old I brought him home! He's an absolute hooligan, very monsterous, but soo cute ;-)

Here he is, aged 4 weeks and 5 days. Doing his rat impression LOL

And here he is aged exactly 10 months (17th May 05). I know the first photo was appalling quality but look how much he's lightened in colour!

In April 2007 Pinto suddenly became quite ill. After a couple of days he bounced back but his balance was bad and he had a head tilt which gradually improved. I suspect he'd had a stroke. But he was never quite the same after that and sadly on the 6th May 2007 he died. Because my small animals are all rescues I've not often had the privelledge of owning them from babies and it was lovely to be able to see him grow up, because of circumstances when I got him he was a special boy too.