Meet our baby.

This is Vladimir.  Well, technically, Baron Vladimir von Roborovski.  He is a Roborovski (dwarf) hamster that we added to our family today.  He is tiny, cute, quick and pretty fun to play with.  The story behind Vladdy is that Zak saw a craiglist ad for baby hedgehogs and responded.  We were hoping it wouldn't be very expensive, but the lady wrote back and said the hedgehogs were $200 apiece.  So we found ourselves at the pet store, looking at the cute dwarf hamsters.  Zak has always wanted one, and I agree they are a million times cuter than normal sized hamster and guinea pigs (no thank you).  We decided that we were going to get one because fish just aren't as much fun to play with.  We got some basic necessities and -poof!-we became hamster owners.

cage with food, water and chew mountain for him to chew on and hide under

We brought him home and while we got his cage set up, put him in his little rolling ball.  He didn't quite understand the purpose of it, but once we moved him to the linoleum, he got the hang of it. 

carpet = not as good as linoleum

We spent the rest of the day letting him run around on the carpet (he is fast!) and climb over our chests and hands.  He even got up Zak's shirt a little ways when he was laying on the floor, but we rescued him.  We are trying to get him used to being held and played with.  So far we think it's going well.  I spent awhile having him sleep up next to me as I gently rubbed his soft fur.  He is a cute little thing!

all tuckered out

Zak has had the opportunity to have been both pooped and peed on a fair amount today.  Vlad seems to think he is his toilet, probably due to the fact that Zak loves holding him and Vlad hasn't spent too much time in his cage.  Hopefully he will get used to his new home soon.

new best friends!

We are very happy with our little hamster.  We hoped to get another one in a month or two, so they can play together.  Here are some more pictures of our fun afternoon with Vladdy.

I like how flat Vlad is

rocket hamster