Hamsters, Death, and Mendacity

We had A Major Traumatic Event at my household yesterday morning.

First: the cast. You are already familiar with the Ex, the Ex's God-daughter and her Six Year-Old Son, all of whom live upstairs. Ex also has some friends who come up every Memorial Day weekend for a festival here in town. VD - the visiting daughter - is approximately the same age as my daughter, The Little Princess, who is eight.

GreatGodson has a hamster. Had a hamster. Sunday afternoon, against the explicit advice of his mother, he and Visiting Daughter took the hamster into the backyard to play. (TLP, according to all later testimony, was not participating in this activity, but spending her time lying in the sun in her new pink bikini and sunglasses. That's a whole other entry.)

Late Sunday night, when TLP came down to bed, she told me that the hamster had "sprained his ankles" and couldn't use his hind legs. I found this dismaying, but it never remotely occured to me that the Mother of the Hamster Owner was not aware of the situation. It was also past 11pm, I had already gone to bed, and was not inclined to worry about whatever might be going on upstairs. Ordinarily, this is an excellent policy: ex-spouses not inquiring too closely into the inner workings of each other's households.

All hell broke loose on Monday morning. The Goddaughter came out of her room to find the hamster in his cage in the living room paralyzed and lying in its own excrement. When she asked the three children what had happened, she received a complete set of wide-eyed "I Don't Know's".

Goddaughter - understandably - hit the roof.

( Crime and Punishment )

Icon Fun!

Thanks to a post by violetisblue, I've finally been able to create my own cartoon icon!

Personally, I think she/I looks like Stephanie Zimbalist as Laura Holt in "Remington Steele" -- which was, for a long time my favorite television show.

Hurm. She's a bit smaller than I expected. Maybe I'll go back later and do another one, or save it larger.

Now I really must get back to work on the Ethics paper which is due Thursday evening.