Europe 2014 - Lucerne Hike, Wilderness Trees #1 / Salty's Hamsters

In the post of January 13 I described my first serious pet, a boa constrictor that we named Pretzel.  If you read that story, you know that I was bitten by Pretzel, which eventually led to our decision to give him away.

I was not to be deterred, however, from using exotics as a way to express my eccentricities to the world at large.  After Pretzel became a problem because of his illness and the fact that he was a bit skittish (due to his having recently been caught in the wild), we went back to the pet store in Groves and purchased a younger, captive-bred, more docile boa that would be more interesting and fun to handle.  I named him Salty, and never regretted the decision to bring him into our family, as he was indeed noticeably more docile and even appeared to enjoy being handled.

And now that I had a snake that would actually eat, it was made clear by the parents that it was my job to keep Salty fed.  Salty was younger and much more active, so had a decent appetite, and the food of choice was hamsters - the teddy bear variety since they were more plump.

Being the diligent pet owner, and now all the more eager since we owned a boa that had an appetite, each and every Saturday morning, rain or shine, I rode my bike to the local Kresge's and bought a teddy bear hamster.  It was a trick, though, because on the way back home I had to control the bike one-handed while holding the box they came in.  Hamsters can quickly bite through, especially at the corners, and I would sometimes have to stop and poke it's nose back in to keep Salty's meal from escaping while en route.

After about eight weeks of this, the cashier lady remarked, "My, you must have one of those big hamster cities!"  I proudly stated that, on the contrary, as a responsible pet owner I was feeding them to my snakes.  She gave me a disgusted look, and from then on I avoided her whenever possible.  Word got out, though, and soon enough every cashier soured at the very sight of me.

One Saturday I was sick and it fell upon my dad to go get the hamster.  As he told it, he approached the cashier holding the little box and, upon seeing it, the cashier said, "Boy, am I glad to see someone like you buying this hamster.  Do you know what we see here every week?"

"What?", Dad answered, beginning to feel a little sheepish.

"There's this awful little boy that buys these to feed to his snakes!!"

Dad played along, saying something like, "My, that's terrible!"...and walked out with Salty's next meal.