Introducing Ted Nougat

I’ve been feeling bummed without any animals around to take care of other than the dog who isn’t a cuddler, so I started thinking obsessing about getting another hamster. There’s a huge Petland by the IKEA we like to visit which has all kinds of hamsters in open cages which means they are handled often and tend to be much tamer than the ones at Petco (where the notorious Oreo came from), so we made plans to go there this past Saturday with E. That morning he woke up with a tummy ache so we didn’t go. I didn’t feel too great on Sunday myself, but I wasn’t going to let that stop my mission, so we got to IKEA when they opened to partake in some seriously cheap breakfast, walked around the store to kill some time, and then arrived at the pet store just as they opened. This little guy was the first hamster we picked up.

He was so soft and cute – I knew I had to have him! Plus some little girl was eying him in my hand and I wasn’t about to lose him to a 9 year old.* He’s my first male hamster and even though his face looks a lot like Oreo’s he doesn’t suffer from her bitchy personality. Sticking with the food names I decided to name him Nougat because he’s a sweet teddy bear hamster, but his official name, since it’s hilarious, is Ted Nougat. For only $9.99 you could own your own hamster too. ;)

So far he’s loving the wheel in his 20 gallon aquarium. I don’t think he had one in his cage at the pet store so he’s making up for lost time by running in it constantly when he’s awake. Bella is fascinated by him and will lay and watch him when he’s in his play pen. It’s so cute! She’ll also follow him around in his hamster ball but if he starts coming her way she’ll quickly move as if scared of him.

* The girl was really sweet, though; I helped her and her mother learn a bit about hamsters as they were going to buy two since they didn’t know they couldn’t be housed together, among other things.