Sunny the Hamster

Prologue: This story doesn’t have a lot to do with Coby… but it is so worth telling that I am including it.

It was the day of Coby’s 5 year old birthday party. Coby came downstairs and told me that I better come look at his brother Jake’s hamster Sunny, because she didn’t look good. I went up with Coby and sure enough there lay Sunny in her cage. Sunny side up!

I went and found Jake, age 8, and sat him down and told him the sad news. He began to cry silent tears and I tried to comfort him. I asked him if there was anything I could do to help. He told me, “I want to call Dad.”

Dad had offered to take our daughter Amanda, age 11, to piano lessons that day so that I could prepare for the birthday party. I gave Jake my cell phone and let him call his dad.

Dad answered the phone and Jake began to cry and say, “Sunny is dead! I can’t wake her up! She is just laying there.”

What Dad heard on the other end was, “MOMMY is dead! I can’t wake her up! She is just laying there.”

The next thing I know I am watching Jake start to shake Sunny while he yells “Wake Up! Wake Up!” Then he slaps her in the face – nothing happens! Then he runs to the bathroom and gets water in his hands and splashes it on Sunny. I am watching in amazement wondering what in the world Dad is saying to this poor child on the other end of the phone.

Next thing I hear Jake say, “Thank you Dad.” He hangs up the phone.

Mom, “Jake what is going on? What did Dad say to you?”

Jake, “Mom don’t worry – Dad is calling 911 and he is on his way home.”

I try not to freak out and pick up the phone and keep trying to dial my husband to find out what he is thinking! I can’t get through; the phone keeps giving me a busy signal.

In the meantime, my husband had run into the piano lesson, pulled Amanda out and said, “We need to leave immediately, Mom is unconscious and we need to get home." Amanda begins to cry and runs out of piano lessons and jumps in the car with Dad.

The piano teacher happens to be a pastor’s wife so she immediately calls her church and I am put on 3 different prayer chains. My husband calls his co-workers after hanging up with 911 and asks them to go to the house to be there with Jake and Coby, because they are close by.

I keep trying to call my husband as I see a police car pull up outside of my house and my husband’s boss and my husband’s father pull up. They get out of the car and are on their cell phones. I finally get through to my husband as they are all walking up and tell him it was the HAMSTER! He starts laughing hysterically and says I need to call 911 and tell them not to come. Too late!

I yell at the door to everyone walking in that I am okay – it was the HAMSTER! I hear people on their cell phones saying, ‘It’s the hamster… it’s the hamster.”
I welcome everyone into our home and tell them what happened and everyone is laughing hysterically.

During this time I notice that poor Jake is sitting off to the side with a very sad face. The reality was that Sunny was still not waking up. He didn’t think anyone cared.

I pulled Jake aside and explained to him that people weren’t laughing because Sunny was dead. They weren’t happy about that, they were just happy that it was Sunny and not Mommy. I asked if he could understand that.

He thought about it for awhile and in a very serious voice looked at me and said, “I loved you both the same.”