Hamster Hijinks

Did you have a favorite pet when you were a kid?

I remember wanting a dog very badly. But Mom (who had a dog when she was growing up) said they were too much work. Plus, she was not the type to have a dog running around the house making a mess, or even out in the yard for that matter. So a dog was out of the question.

Consequently, I ended up with a hamster.

It's interesting that hamsters were first discovered in 1930, in the Syrian desert. They became popular as laboratory animals because they bred so quickly and were disease-free. 

Hamsters were first introduced into the United States in 1938. Ten years later, they made it to Lorain. Below is an article that ran in the Lorain Journal on June 30, 1948. 

As the article notes, "Animals whose bodies will be testing grounds for cancers, brain surgeries and fatal diseases are being raised in Lorain.

"Some 40 of the rat-like animals called hamsters are being bred for just that purpose in cages at 314 13th-st.

"But I. M. Eno is having his headaches with the brood. For one thing they multiply every six weeks and are in constant demand from laboratories around the world. Eno has shipped some to Maryland, others to Spokane, Washington and the labs, he says, pay $3, $4 or sometimes $6 for two or three hamsters."

With hamsters reproducing like crazy, within a few years the surplus was apparently being marketed as pets. Below is a Mary Lee Tucker column from the January 14, 1953 Lorain Journal that mentions two "cunning six-month old hamsters" that were being offered free to a good home.

Perhaps one of these hamsters was the one that won a prize at the Lakeview Park pet show that was the subject of the article below from the August 19, 1953 Lorain Journal.

Hamsters were still in the early years of being accepted as pets, as noted in the article below from June 23, 1955. 

"In recent years, hamsters have become popular. In many homes they are kept simply as pets. Others are kept for breeding purposes – but only where the owner has a ready market for them in pet shops or laboratories," noted the article.

"Many children first encounter hamsters in school, where they are often kept as class pets. A hamster is also a fascinating animal for a child to have at home. He looks like a small bear with his sleek, dense fur and deep gold color."

As the 1950s gave way to the 1960s, hamsters began to gain in popularity and become more well-known. A hamster named Humm was the subject of a Top Top Tales children's book published in 1961.

And even Mister Magoo had a pet hamster (Hamlet) in those early 1960s made-for-TV cartoons.

As with many pets whose popularity is not yet widespread, there can often be misunderstandings about them. Apparently the well-known advice columnist Ann Landers had written a column mistakenly claiming that hamster cages gave off an odor. An irate hamster (who read the column when it was part of the newspaper used to line his cage) fired off a missive to the columnist. 

It's not too surprising to me that my parents bought me a hamster in 1970, since the intriguing pet seemed to make the Journal a lot that year. Hamsters were the subject of a "Tell Me Why" column on Feb. 19, 1970.

On March 16, 1970, the "Business and Industrial Review" page featured an article about hamster breeder Chuck Russell of Chuck's Rock & Pet Shop.

And Penneys ran this huge ad for Golden Hamsters on April 30, 1970.

We ended up heading out to Chuck's Rock & Pet Shop, which was located at Beulah Beach, to buy my hamster. I named him Rufus. I can't remember if I named him that after the goofy Rufus character in the comic strip Gasoline Alley or Rufus Butterworth (played by Bob 'Gilligan' Denver) on the TV show The Good Guys.

A copy of this book (purchased at Midway Mall) helped me learn how to take care of Rufus.

And here he is with Mom, circa 1970.

I remember one time Mom was holding him and he bit her real good, drawing blood. Mom reacted accordingly and Rufus briefly became a flying hamster. He was none the worse for his tumble, however, and I was more shook up to see Mom cry while she was bleeding.

Rufus' cage was kept in the basement, since he ran in his squeaky exercise wheel all night. Strangely enough, my younger brother had a Tumble Stones Rock Polisher Kit about the same time, which was set up near Rufus' cage. (I don't know if we bought it at Chuck's Rock & Pet Shop.)

Rufus was quite the escape artist; he made a break for it a few times, pushing out the removable tray that served as his floor and squeezing out from under his cage bars. We ended up buying a bigger, escape-proof cage.

But Hamsters don't live very long (a couple years) and Rufus didn't either. I don't remember being particularly upset when he died. It was just too long ago.

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When my last cat passed away a few years ago, I decided that I wasn't going to get another one. It was just too hard to deal with their inevitable demise. Plus, there was the possibility that a young cat might eventually outlive me.

But I missed having a pet. So what did I get? You guessed it – a hamster! And I bought a copy of Enjoy Your Hamster on eBay – the same edition I had in 1970 – to 'raise' him by.

Meet Hamlet.

I bought him this summer at one of the few local family pet stores still in existence. During both my visits to the store, he was shacked up with a hamster harem of young lovelies in a paper towel tube. "He's been here forever," said one of the employees. So he's no kid.

But I'm afraid his playboy days are over. 

He's a lot different than Rufus. He hardly ever runs in his wheel. (He's done it twice.) But like Rufus, he's already tried to bite me about three times. He hates being picked up and isn't likely to ever be trained.

But he's good company and a lot of laughs so far.