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Constant Opal - Page Text Content

FC: Constant Opal

1: with love to our opal hamsters Maudine, Sparrow, Helix, Owl, Bode, Coal, Comet, Arthur, Stephen, Pepper, Sherman, and Edith

2: We begin with lovely Maudine, mother of five bonny opals and six comely marshmallows.

4: This daughter of Maudine was Sparrow, better known as Dart, the sole opal in a ring of white siblings.

6: The second litter was almost the reverse. Four opals - two boys and two girls - and a single white sister called Milkdrop. | The most affable of this second lot was Helix. He was everyone's friend, faithful in his wheeling, and a kind roommate to dear Hammond.

8: The other brother, Owl, was long regarded as the softest hamster who ever lived.

9: Owl was fond of a scurry. How he managed some of his escapes... it is, as they say, a mystery.

10: Like Owl, Coal was shy. The little wheeze she carried throughout her life made her aptly named, but this was only a coincidence - she and her siblings were each named for a galaxy.

11: Bode's signature creation, "Peanut Butter Bodikins," remains a popular treat amongst small hamsters today. | The photo of her in the gingerbread cottage was one of Flickr's top 100 photos on Christmas Day, 2005.

12: Two years passed, and only a few of the first opals were left. In those final ancient days, a new generation of opals were welcomed into the hamily.

13: Comet was named for the stardust on his brow.

14: The relationship between Comet and the venerable Arthur is unknown. While housed separately at the shelter, employees there alluded to a mishap" that had turned a few | hammies into several. It is very likely that Arthur was at least a cousin to Comet. Likewise, he was surely of some relation to the younger Stephen and Pepper, his brief roommates. | With Pepper, he was the father* of Edith and Sherman. Arthur grew old witj his son, living the life of a cheerful patriarch.

15: *(probably)

16: Stephen, who collected postcards and fluffins, and who had a frog.

19: Pepper | Pepper was the mother of Sherman and Edith, and she was the valiant record-holder for daily wheeling. Pepper avoided photographers.

20: Edith | In the tradition of Owl, Edith was once softest ham. She was also known for sweetness.

21: Sherman, like all good hamsters, enjoyed running, pouching, and getting into the hand. Or the foot. Sherman was a crumbcatcher.

BC: Opals are not the only wonderful hamsters. There are albinos, normals, mottleds, blue beiges, blue fawns, argentes, blacks, platinums, doves, lilacs, sables, sapphires, daffodils, and whatever the future may bring.