The Diary of a Hamster by Purple Panda

Monday, December 16th

Dear diary,

Hi! I’m Cheeks, I'm a hamster, and I live in a magical pet shop. It’s great! Except

that…we hamsters aren’t magical, but the other animals of the shop are.

Today, we hamsters overheard the owners talking about their holiday plans. They always leave on holiday, and we got excited because one type of pet always leaves with them. The Special Pet changes every time the owners go on holiday.

We hamsters have never been special pets. Usually it’s dragons, sometimes unicorns or griffins. Once the color-changing ants went. But that’s all. The 3-eyed fish can’t go, of course, and that leaves us, the forgotten hamster tribe. There’s five of us; Biscuit, Einstein, Ivy, Taco, and me.

Biscuit is nice and acts like any other hamster would. Einstein is not very clever and loves sleeping. Ivy is calm, patient and reasonable. Taco is super clever and has the teeth of a beaver. And me? I’m excitable.

So we have never gone on holiday as the Special Pet. It’s a thing you earn; if the owner’s kids, Max and Lola, decide we’ve been good pets, then they pick us. But since we’re not fantastical or magical in any way, we’ve never been chosen.

Well, actually once we had been, but then right before we were supposed to leave, Biscuit and I tried a flying stunt over Einstein while he was sleeping, but we landed with so much noise that we woke up half the shop, and our permission was revoked and we were replaced by the unicorns. But this year, we want to go.

We will go. Because it’s Christmas, and every animal that comes back from this holiday in particular has a story about the feasts, the presents, the snow… and we have a plan. Lola is 5 years old, and still sleeps with her favorite stuffed animal, Pepper the dog. But she lost it during the last holiday. And since then, nobody has gotten a single night of sleep. So, we are going to find it for her. And if we bring it back, we will most certainly be crowned Special Pet.

Tuesday, December 17th

Last night we all dreamed of our holidays as Special Pets, so we all woke up with hope and confidence for today’s adventure. We started by getting out; we squeezed through the bars one by one. Einstein was a bit too big to go through them, but Taco used his teeth to pry the bars open and Einstein was able to slip out. Then we ran towards the door, pushed it with all of our strength, and ran outside into the cold, biting snow.

After hours of miserable travel, we were all exhausted and losing hope, until Taco shouted, “Over there! I see it! I see Pepper the dog!”

We all looked around and realised he was right. The stuffed animal looked more like a big splash of ink on a white page, but at least it was visible. We all started running towards it.

Then, Einstein cried out, “DUCK!”

And though we didn’t know why we all threw ourselves onto the ground and ducked our heads. A few seconds later, a giant laina (a mix of an eagle and a bear) was screeching and flying over our heads.

It scooped up Pepper the dog, then let out another screech before speeding away.

I blinked. It had happened so fast that I wasn’t even sure if I had dreamt it up or not.

But judging by the look on the other hamster’s faces, I clearly hadn’t. As if to make things worse, Biscuit started shivering; “I-can’t-do-this-any-more!” she said between gasps.

She has always been the one to get cold the fastest, so this wasn’t surprising. But when I looked over at her, it wasn’t cold that I saw. It was more like the icy grip of winter itself pulling every ounce of warmth from her body. Ivy had seen it too.

“Oh my gosh!” she exclaimed. Then she turned to us, her voice trembling. “She needs help. Now.”

Maybe it was the extreme fear printed cleanly across her face, or the urgency of her voice. But something about it made me snap. I turned on my paw and sprinted across the snow for what felt like hours, the cold wind whipping at my face and the stumbles across the ice killing my confidence.

Finally I arrived at the pet shop, where I saw the owner standing outside. I bit her ankle. She looked down at me in surprise, then was laughing and shouting and dancing all at once.

“Cheeks!” She exclaimed.

“We finally found you!”

I was exasperated.

“BISCUIT!” I shouted. “BISCUIT IS OUT THERE DYING!”

But all she understood was “Squeak! Squeak SQUEAK!”

Then she reached down to pick me up. I couldn’t let that happen, not if I wanted my friends to stay alive. So I dodged away from her big hand and sprinted back towards my suffering tribe. I was surprised and relieved when she noticed me escaping. She followed me.

When we arrived, Biscuit wasn’t breathing and her tiny hands were shriveled up and purple. Einstein had fainted, Ivy was sobbing, and Taco was trying CPR on the tiny purple hamster. Then I fainted right next to Einstein and everything went black.

Thursday, December 26th

I’m back! After having woken up 2 weeks ago, Ivy told me what had happened while I had been unconscious. She explained how Einstein and I had woken up at the same time two days later. Best of all though, she explained how the owners had brought us all to the vet, who had saved Biscuit’s life just in time. She said our owners felt so bad about letting us out of their sight that they decided to bring us on their Christmas holiday! And honestly, with the all-you-can-eat feast, the presents, and the delightfully crazy decoration of the Christmas tree, it was the absolute best week ever!