The story of Beans the hamster

This story is for Taylor and everyone else. Beans came into my life well before Life Long Tails began and I did purchase him at a pet store. Something about his adorable face and personality won me over in a heartbeat. He was a grey colored , long haired syrian hamster. I had no idea that this little hamster would become what he did.... He was a tiny baby when I brought him home and I named him Beans after the kid in " Even Stevens" on Disney channel. After only a few weeks I noticed that Beans was growing at a very rapid rate, quicker than usual... and it seemed he kept on growing. He soon became a massive hamster with long fluffy fur. he outgrew any of your standard sized hamster cages and even a ten gallon or twenty gallon sized aquarium were much too small for him. I eventually bought him a guinea pig cage to live him, since he was too large to fit through the bar spacing. And forget hamster wheels or balls, or even larger sized wheels for rats that suited his size, he wouldn't run in any of them. Don't get me wrong, he wasn't overweight, just BIG
The best part about Beans was his winning personality. He was always so gentle and loved to be handled, he was even sweet when woken up. I made it a habit to take him where ever I went. Little children loved to hold him and he was always great with them. Many people gawked at him and thought he was a guinea pig when they first say him, because he was the size of one! I loved taking him with me when I was out with my firends, we played the game of pass the Beans , which was Beans being passed from one person to another and oohing and aaahing over him. Even people that didn't like hamsters or didn't trust hamsters found themselves handling Beans and loving him.
It was a fateful day and a dark day when I went to pick up Beans and he was all bloated and hard all around his abdomen. I got beans in to see the vet the next day and found out he had tumors on his abdomen. We opted for exploritory surgery to find out if the tumors were removable and if they were, to remove them. They weren't though, so instead of letting Beans continue to suffer he was never woken up from anesthesia and allowed to pass on while he under and asleep. As sad as that was , it really was a peaceful way for him to go.
Beans will always be in my heart and I will always remember him and tell his story.

Rachel, thank you for sharing your story about Beans. He sounded like a one of a kind guy. It is so hard to lose them, but you have many happy memories of him. I tried to post to let you know I was sorry to hear about Stanley, but the forum wouldn't let me post for some reason. Anyway, I'm sorry about both Beans and Stanley.

Thank you Rachel for sharing that story about Beans, sounds like he was a wonderful companion. I had a hamster like that, her name was Pumpkin and she was the love of my life. My mom got her for me for my 8th birthday and I had her for 5 years. The day she died was the most traumatic day of my life as she died in my hands. Till this day, I still think about her and I miss her deeply.