Hamster News

The two Quebecois hamsters I first mentioned here are...not doing that great, actually. These two girls have had quite a journey. TAS South is involved with a program called Le French Connection (and I strongly recommend looking at that website, it's a really inspiring program) where we transport dogs out of Quebec shelters and bring them to Toronto. On a recent run to Montreal, a shelter worker brought back two hamsters with the dogs, and they ended up with me as fosters.
Up above is Maelle, and if either of them are going to become tame at some point, it'll be her. Since I'm in Olympics fever right now, she's named after Maelle Ricker (gold medallist!). Maelle is a little calmer than the other one.
The other hamster is Marianne (named after Marianne St-Gelais), and she is crazy. You can't touch her. She is arguably cuter (little white face!) but she's not tame in the slightest.
Both of them are Black Bear Hamsters, which are a type of Syrian hamsters and are super-cute. They'd be adopted super-fast, if it was humanly possible to hold them. They're only a few months old. I have no idea what happened to them, but they are seriously messed up, and skinny, and scared of everything.
We're trying to fatten them up now, however, and get them tame, so hopefully their futures will look a little brighter.
I have to admit to getting a little frustrated with them - then this morning, I turned around to see Maelle sitting at the side of her cage, paws resting on the bars, watching me curiously. I went up to her and she let me stroke her little paws for a bit before ambling away.
Maybe there's hope for them after all.