RIP Little Jay...

Ok the title gives it away a little, however today we have had a death in the family.

If you could just remove your hats and stand solemnly for a minute or so, and give our family hamster the respect it deserves.

Jay, our little brown, energetic, climb framing, Nintendo game playing hamster passed away today. It is a sad day, and Spider man was quite distraught when I broke the news to him. To be fair I will miss him a little myself, as during the summer holidays he was the only company I had on the nights I couldn't sleep...who will I talk to and pass the night away with when the hobbits go to Spain at Christmas?

Thankfully, for the hobbits, Fish & chips and chocolate has eased the pain a little bit and the thought that maybe, one day, we shall get another Jay.

God it really isn't easy dealing with a dead pet, no matter how small he is...and I have to say, I am really not that great at burying small furry creatures. It is the look on their little face that makes me a tad squeamish.

So I called for back up. Gallantly arrived my friend J, and after some advice from B about putting him in a box and adding a poem to the ceremony we decided that we had better remove him from where he was wedged behind his wheel.

Trouble is, I didn't have a shoe box...the only box I had that was big enough was a Nescafé latte sachet box. Initially I moved in, box in one hand and the other free to move the wheel.

OMG! He was as stiff as a board...why wasn't I expecting that?
"I can't do it!" I exclaim to J, "It is too freaky."
"Oh for gods sake, give me the box you wuss." So she takes the Nescafé box off me and bravely starts trying to roll him into the box. Alas, as she does so he falls out of the other end, and now no longer in his peaceful foetal position he is lying upside down, little legs akimbo.
"Oh crap, now he is looking at me!" I am getting really weirded out by this, "Poor little thing, I can't have him looking at me....I feel guilty."
"Now bloody get it together," says my friend. "The hobbits will be expecting a burial, and it's no good you bloody freaking out."
"Can't I just put him in the bin, and say he ran away?"
"No, for a start B will kill you. Putting him in the bin is hardly Eco friendly. Personally, I would lob him over the fence to next door neighbours garden, whilst singing 'Jerusalem'...but you have the hobbits and B to think about."
"Oh, bo**ocks." I mutter.
"Good luck," she says, "However, I am considering writing to Nescafé to tell them their boxes are useless...can't even hold a dead hamster...really?"

Billy Bragg sings Jerusalem

It takes me another hour or so before I can find enough courage to move his slowly decomposing body. Using a small spade and the box that their chicken nuggets came in from the fish and chip shop, I manage to settle him into his final resting place.

Individually, the hobbits have drawn a picture of them each playing with little Jay, and this has gone in the box with some bedding and some food for his journey. Strangely Batman is obsessed at looking at him...maybe he will be a vet?

After all this, it is now very cold and very dark outside...so the burial will have to wait until tomorrow, when poor little Jay will go back to the earth...and hobbits, and B will be happy that he is back in the circle of life.

That is until a cat digs him up.