Im posting this biography/journal/whatever you want to call it because, as you probably already know, Candy Chang passed away peacefully in her sleep last night I do not know when exactly she left us, but I truly believe she was happy in the end. Were going to take her date of birth officially as 2nd March 2013 just for symbolism. Today is 5th April 2015. Its been a long, incredible 2 years.

Ive been keeping a running text document of Candys life and my experience living with her from the very beginning because I knew this day would eventually be upon us. Ive always resented the fact that our domesticated animal friends have such short lifespans, and thats at least half of the reason weve never adopted one; however, when Candy basically brought herself into our lives, we quickly realized what wed been missing. Knowing how short our time would be, I wanted to capture all the key moments in her journey of life, as well as have a comprehensive biography for us to remember her by when were old and demented. Im sharing this so that, hopefully, MY world will never forget Candy Changs life; in a world where animal cruelty still exists, where people are stealing family pets to serve up in a restaurant, and where the sanctity of animal life is sometimes disregarded entirely, its the least I could do for her. I dont give two shits about the size of the being; a sentient, living, breathing thing has been granted the gift of life, and we would do damn well to respect that, even if we dont always know what theyre thinking or trying to say.

Yes, Im writing this foreword (and the conclusion at the end) with tears in my eyes and a heart thats inevitably a little emptier. I watched Mom wash and clean Candys cage for the last time, and it kills me to pick up or even look at the little accessories that Candy once claimed as her own, or the cage in which she once roamed freely around. This should be, however, a celebration of the life of who I personally believed to be the happiest hamster in the world.

We first met Candy on the night of my sister Jolene's birthday. Because she was a 16 year old girl, the party was an overblown event as expected. The theme of the party was "sweets" or something similar. Chocolates, licorice, sweets, the like. Her classmates pooled together to get her a birthday gift, and that birthday gift was, fortunately for all involved, a tiny, female, 1 week old Winter White Dwarf hamster with a tiny white button of a tail. I do not believe hamsters are allowed to be legally put on sale before their 3-week weaning period with their mothers, so technically she must have been at least 4 weeks old, but were taking her DOB as 2nd March anyway. It was a chance encounter. My sister's classmates had gone to the pet store earlier that day and gone straight to that one hamster cage containing around 30 hamsters, according to one boy. Apparently, all of the tiny, poor hamsters got scared beyond their wits when they saw the kids coming, and scrambled to hide behind the hamster wheel. The little Winter White that would eventually be named Candy Chang was the only tiny, trembling hamster left behind (or rather, in front of the hamster wheel); she was scooped up and brought to the counter, and that was that. There was also the small matter of my sister's classmates attempting to handle her and one of the boys dropping her from a serious height, only to make a saving catch quickly to prevent any real damage. She could have died the night before we met her! Ironically, I do believe she was lucky to have been such a timid little girl because it helped her find her way into the Chang household. The night we brought her up to our home, I didn't really pay any mind to her because Id been preparing to go over to Bernard's house to watch a Manchester United game (remember this point). Just a little curiosity, and I was off to watch some football. The next day was when it all truly began. There she lay, in the neat pink cage that she arrived in, sleeping soundly like the baby she was. She was really tiny, probably less than 10cm in length even; a delicate, precious little baby. My sister and I sat there feeling like the proud new parents of a little newborn. It felt amazing to hear the story of how Candy came to be Candy from my sister. Jolene named her Candy after much debate to remind us of when we first met her, and how she fatefully entered the household in the aftermath of a candy-themed birthday party. Weve never had a pet in the household before. My parents always felt like it would have been too much of a hassle, and they were afraid that we wouldn't have time to commit to the pet if we did adopt one. And if we did, they worried that wed neglect our studies. The timing was impeccable on this one. I'd just finished my A levels, gotten decent-ish grades, and had a lot of time. It was Jolene's O Level year, granted. Still, it was a novel experience, and we were pleasantly surprised by our parents' warm reception of Candy into the household. I believe it only took one look at her, sleeping peacefully in the corner, to change their stance immediately. 29th March 2013For these two or three weeks, Candy has been sleeping almost all the time, like a baby would. We were amazed by how she somehow knew instinctively to lick the bottom of the water bottle to get the droplets into her tiny mouth. We're talking a man-made device that a baby hamster somehow knew how to operate. She loved the hamster wheel, and she loved to sleep in the weirdest of places. She'd sleep behind her food bowl, she'd sleep right under the wheel, she'd sleep in a really uncomfortable-looking position in the slide that connected the first level of her cage to the second level (basically a stairway of sorts). As a baby, she'd roll and squirm her way up the tube or even push herself butt-first. Ridiculously cute, and we quickly fell in love with the new member of our family. She somehow also knew how to bathe from the get-go, and we loved watching her go to work after putting her sand bath in the cage: shed jump in, flip over and start flailing around as if to get the sand all over her back. Then shed flip over, burrow into the sand a little, and flip over again. Shed repeat this as many times as she needed to keep herself clean, and then shed pop out again and grab some food. It was unbelievably cute, and wed often shush each other and watch in silence whenever it was bath time for Candy; it brought us so much joy to see the life in the little hamster. We also noticed a peculiar food preference of hers - she hardly ate any nuts or anything apart from sunflower seeds. Just sunflower seeds and popcorn, and she was really greedy about it too.

We spent these first couple of weeks learning how to clean her cage, how to get her into the running ball, how to change the water in her feeding tube, how to top up her food bowl with fresh food.

Soon after, she began teething. Like any baby during teething, she experienced aching in her growing teeth, and thus began to bite and grind her teeth on the cage grills. The day after we discovered her new habit, we invested in a little chew toy for her, grape-flavored and shaped like a grape with minerals for her to go along with the easing of her growing pains. We also left a chopstick in her cage for her to bite when necessary in hopes of reducing her tendency to bite at anything that entered her cage. It worked for the most part, but at one point when we tried to put her in her running ball and she wouldnt get in, Dad bravely decided to try and scoop her up instead. She sounded off a warning hiss but it didn't deter him, and then she snapped at his index finger, leaving a small mark and causing some bleeding. That was the first time we'd ever experienced Candy biting any one of us, and honestly, it scared us quite a bit and we became more cautious around her, at least initially. 2nd April 2013Its the one-month anniversary of her "birthday", or the day we first met her. We celebrated by giving her twice as many treats, which on hindsight was not a good idea with her growing size. It was also when we first took pictures of our little hamster friend and put them up on Instagram. A truly joyous moment for all of us, to watch Candy growing up and growing bigger.

18th April 2013I finally got bitten by Candy, although it was because I had moisturizer on my hand and it probably smelt like food to her when I tried to play with her. No big, just a little shocking, but it did take some of the fear factor away. It wasn't extremely painful or anything, and there was just a tiny bit of blood. There was even another occasion when I tried to disturb her while she was sleeping, and she woke up and hissed at me with her jaws wide open, flashing her long, growing teeth. Thankfully, the chew toys had helped to grind her teeth down so they weren't as sharp or long as they otherwise would have been. Still kinda scary, I totally shouldnt have messed with her beauty sleep anyway!

4th May 2013We had our first real scare with Candy. Shes about two months old this Saturday afternoon. Basically, wed left her to run around in her little plastic running ball as always when, all of a sudden, Mom let out tiny scream as she was walking into the kitchen. We rushed over, and to our horror, the ball had broken open, and there was little Candy, sitting like a precious creature just grooming herself on the kitchen floor, completely free. Obviously, we immediately scooped her back up and into her cage. It was a minor scare because Candy could have pranced away immediately and gone behind the refrigerator where she'd surely have burned to her demise, or sprinted out of the kitchen and hidden somewhere else. We were genuinely surprised that she just sat there after tasting freedom, unwilling to move, behaving like she was absolutely in her comfort zone sitting on the kitchen tiles in our home. It was...nice. Her timid and shy nature truly shone through here, and we felt she was just so unique, so different from other hamsters who would have jumped out and ran around the place.

(Forgot the date) June 2013Another story! Candys around three months old now. Id just finished field camp in NS and was in the car with my family on the way home, when they decided to spill the beans on an incident thatd happened a week prior, after they'd just gotten home from a short getaway in Malaysia.

Dad had taken the cover off Candy's cage to feed her and play a little, and then inexplicably left the cover on the ground before going off to do his thing. After a while, he went back to her cage to give her more food, only to realize that SHE WAS NOT IN HER CAGE! He panicked and went to wake the rest of the family, and then my parents went into total panic mode whilst my sister apparently retained her composure and tried to analyze where Candy could have gone. They searched the kitchen, the yard, the living room, all whilst Dad snapped his fingers furiously because Candy had shown signs of responding to finger snaps. After what seemed like forever, Jolene suggested they check under the shoe rack, because why not, right? They shifted the rack, and first they found a small lizard in the crevice. They got rid of it, and then Dad saw a tiny, furry white tail and a small gray backside sticking out from under the rack.

Now, this next part is a little crazy, but ALLEGEDLY, Jolene had called out "Candy, Candy", and Candy then proceeded to sneak out from under the rack, confused and dazed as always, and looked up at the rest of her family innocently. Then she crawled extremely slowly, almost tottering you could say, towards my sister like a shy, frightened little baby who'd just seen hell, all the whilst looking up and sniffing fresh air, probably a welcome change from the rancid stench of our worn shoes. Talk about surviving a scare. This was just plain complacency right there! Imagine if we had lost Candy at three months old. It would have absolutely devastated all of us. Incredible, too, that Candy just sat under the shoe rack next to a lizard. Poor girl must have been so frightened and lost that she couldnt even think to move or run. I would have expected most hamsters to sprint around the house, get stuck in holes, or even run towards their owners when freed. Not Candy. Always timid, always so dazed and confused-looking. Hugely relieved that she was safe. For me, this episode was heartwarming as well, because it showed just how much our family's collective affection for Candy had grown over just three months of having her in our home. All of them were genuinely worried for her safety, treating her like our very own baby.

As the days passed, I saw our parents, especially Dad, grow exceptionally attached to Candy. Dad increasingly found time in between activities to go over to Candy's cage and check on her, snap his fingers (he claimed that she recognized the snapping), or feed her a treat of bread or vegetables; sometimes, he'd even take routine breaks from whatever he was doing just to go see Candy in her habitat.

Mid July 2013We finally made strides as Dad mustered the courage to let Candy out of her cage freely, luring her onto his outstretched palm with a piece of bread. It was magical as we saw Candy take her first steps out of the grill gate of her cage, struggling with her footing whilst inching forward slowly due to her timid nature. Eventually, she climbed onto Dad's palm and he was able to lift her up into the air while she ate peacefully. When she was done eating, she did not even try to bite, instead electing to just sit there and watch us watching her. It was breathtaking progress that we could hardly describe in words; for so long, we'd been terrified of her snapping at our fingers and biting us, but in that moment, it seemed like a bond and trust between animal friend and our family had finally been created.

That gradually progressed into greater confidence, as the rest of us started handling her in the same manner. Lure her onto our palms with food, stroke her fur, watch her lovingly. At one point, wed even placed her on the tiled floor of our yard for her first real floor walking session. She slid all over the place, struggling to maintain her balance and find her footing, and generally moved really slowly. Really cute stuff! On subsequent tries she became more confident, and was able to scurry across the floor at her normal speed whilst only occasionally having her back feet slide a little out of control.

9th August 2013With Candy approximately 5 months+ old and everyone (except Mom) fully comfortable with handling her, something scary happened again. By that point, Candy had truly become a shared joy in our family, and we all really enjoyed taking care of her and making sure she was happy, well-fed and clean as much as possible. Her fur was lustrous as always - we believed it the result of all the care we gave her - and she was growing a little fat! Sometimes we'd watch her just sleeping quietly without a care, especially on rainy days; perfect for sleeping in, and Candy knew exactly how to spend that time. Two main ways of sleeping - one, where she'd lie outstretched and yawn widely before flattening herself against the floor, and another where she'd curl up in an almost-fetal position. Both were tremendously adorable.

I digress. Back to National Day; Id just taken a shower, and had gone straight to the yard to dump my clothes in the laundry. A turn, and then I stood frozen as I saw Candy casually strolling around on the tiled floor. "Dad? Did you let Candy out on the floor?" "NO???" Mom let out a soft scream as she always does. The cage's grilled main gate was wide open, and there she was, walking around like a boss. I hurried over to call her name, and then she started scurrying quickly, almost disappearing below the washing machine before we corralled her and brought her back into the cage, with Dad cheekily asking her "why are you so naughty" as she sat in his grip. I know that sounds like animal cruelty, but it was a loose grip that she sat in, with her paws anchored on top. Either way, it was probably our biggest scare yet, because I certainly hadnt looked at the floor as I entered the yard, and could easily have stepped on her. It was also crazy that nobody had touched the gate, and yet there it was, hanging wide open - only one explanation there; CANDY pushed the gate open by herself! Either shed really developed quickly into a strong little girl, or the hinges were simply loose on the gate. Whatever the case, we quickly secured the gate with some thin wire to prevent any accidental stepping in the future.

August 2013Plenty of time passed from there without much incident; Id created a little video montage of her and her greedy ways, set to "Take My Breath Away" from Top Gun. Classic track. Id also bought her a new toy to play with - a quaint little green house made of plastic, which she was initially lukewarm towards. She liked climbing inside and sticking her head out, but she also completely ignored it at times.

4th September 2013Dad decided to try and "expand" her cage a little, creating a fence of sorts around her cage on the ground whilst leaving the cage door open so that she could roam around and feel somewhat more free within the new boundaries. Only a small problem - the ramp that hed crafted for her to climb back into her cage was way too smooth for her little paws, and we saw her struggle and scratch when she tried to go back "indoors", squeaking loudly and angrily; that convinced us to scrap the idea momentarily.

27th September 2013I returned home from Nee Soon camp to learn of another rather big event in the family (with regards to Candy, anyway). Dad had allegedly been holding her some ways above ground when shed suddenly leapt out of his palm and onto the ground, landing headfirst! They told me that Candy literally lay on the floor, upside-down and motionless for a couple of seconds, with Dad fearing immediately that she'd died. Jolene and Dad just stood there watching, when she suddenly squinted her eyes and made a short, sharp and loud "EEK" before squirming around on her back trying to flip over. Dad was just so darn relieved that she was alright, helping flip her over. They said that Candy then immediately ran all the way back to her cage and scrambled over the gate, seemingly deciding that her cage was still her safest haven! A shocking, but funny story nonetheless and Candy remained one lucky girl.

7th October 2013Couple weeks later, Dad had bought Candy a cool little device, an air-conditioner of sorts which allowed air to roll underneath it, cooling the bedding of the cage. Why? Because hamsters can't stand the heat. Well, nobody really can, to be honest. Cool little device, no less.

Mid October 2013Candys now 7 months old, but Mom is still afraid of touching her. We love cleaning her cage on Sundays; it's become a routine of sorts for us. Put her in the running ball, clean her cage, give her lavender bathing sand, then put her back in the cage and watch with marvel, every week, as she first explored her newly-cleaned cage and licked water droplets from just about everywhere (we tried to leave as much of the cage slightly wet as possible apart from the floor so that she could lick em all up). She would then give us the obligatory one go-around on her running wheel, before crawling into her toilet, flipping over, and rolling around in the sand to "bathe". Always enjoyed watching her do this ever since the first week; it was like shed never grown up. Bigger in size, but same old Candy with her same old habits.

17th October 2013Weve noticed eyelid abscesses around her right eye, which was markedly a lot smaller than her left one. A new development, but one that scared me to no end. Everyone else played it cool but they seemed at least somewhat worried upon realizing that abscesses could lead to infection and death. I was scared out of my wits, heart pounding, and I felt like throwing up. I was nervous as hell. Candy, only 7 months old, with a condition possibly linked to poor hygiene? Impossible; she's maybe the most pampered little hamster in the world. I spent the night praying through my sleep, unable to focus on anything else; just praying for mercy upon a poor, innocent little hamster and her precious, short little life. She doesnt deserve this nonsense.

18th October 2013So we went to the vet, the Joyous Vet at Sunshine Place, and I was wowed by how amazing the ambience was. Just amazing, dedicated people doing good things, for good causes. It was the first time I'd ever been to a vet, and you could feel the love for animals all over the place. Really interesting stuff.

Anyway, the diagnosis was straightforward - either an eye infection, or a tumor (highly unlikely given her youth). We were given cleaning saline, eyedrops and antibiotics to be administered via a syringe. The instruction was to call back if the condition hadn't cleared up after a week, as that was the amount of time the antibiotics usually take to come into effect.

Heres the interesting part: on the bottle labels, Candys name had been printed as Candy Chang. Id of course decided on giving her our last name from the very beginning, but it was funny to see it in black and white. Shes officially a part of this family now, for sure.

End October 2013Initial treatment was not promising. It certainly was precious and cute how we scooped her up and fed her the antibiotic syrup, and watched her squirm and grab the barrel like a baby sucking on a milk bottle, blinking furiously . However, for all of 5 days, there was little to no progress - her right eyelids were still pink and crusty - both upper and lower. Her fur was no longer smooth and shimmery, fuzzy and frizzled instead by the eye ointment running through the gaps; she looked old, lethargic and disheveled, and she slept almost all day. It was simply heartbreaking to see her in that state at just 7 months old. I remember furiously googling possible conditions with said symptoms: conjunctivitis, eye tumor, abscesses, cancer I read about hamsters that recovered after treatment, and those that didn't make it, especially following deterioration in activity levels. It was overwhelming for me, and I felt so upset that I almost kind of broke down that night, fearful beyond belief for the young, short life of our dear hamster Candy. It just didn't seem fair to me that our Candy would be one to get a potentially life-threatening condition at such a young age, particularly when we took such good care of her and kept her cage so clean. I wanted her to live a long, full and happy life with us, and simply could not fathom the thought of losing her to some stupid eye infection.

This was also the time I came across the concept of the Rainbow Bridge. Ill be honest, I teared up reading it, because I knew the day would come where this would apply to us.

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor. Those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent. His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....

Two days after though, we started to see real improvements. Her activity level skyrocketed back up to her usual noisy standards, we finally saw her scurrying around in her cage regularly again, and she was hyperactive on the wheel in the morning again. The swelling in her lower eyelid looked to have reduced as well. I was thankful that it clearly wasnt a tumor.

November 2013Confirmation that Candy responds to Dads snapping. Every morning, without fail, Dad would wake up, do his thing, then head to the kitchen to tear off a small piece of bread. Hed then head to the yard, snap his fingers, and Candy would come rushing to the top level, waiting for a treat. Every morning. Wed also gotten into the habit of breaking off a bit of whatever fruit we were having every evening: apple, pear, guava, mango, and giving it to Candy. She ate just about everything, and came to know the approximate timing of her special treat times.

December 2013A few weeks later, and the swelling was much, much better. This came in time for our trip to Eastern Europe, and definitely reassured all of us as we handed care of Candy over to a girl named Tara and her boarding service, called Lovepets-hamsters. I remember how the entire family was just scurrying about the house the night before we left as we packed Candys own luggage for her little getaway; making sure she had fresh bedding, food and water, cleaning her cage, and most significantly, finally electing to try human eyedrops as saline to clean her eye with. The decision to switch medication came as the prescribed eyedrops ran dry, and it was a decision made with much trepidation from a fear of the potential, unknown consequences; still, it was one of the best decisions wed ever made - instant results and reduced swelling the very next morning.

Handing Candy over was one of the tougher things to do in our short time with her thus far. Rather, my parents drove her to Taras in the afternoon and I had to reluctantly stroke her goodbye whilst blindly placing my faith in somebody none of us had ever met. The responsibility for a delicate little life, thats what Im talking about. I had an queasy feeling in my stomach, but I trusted Lovepets-hamsters; I had to.

And so we spent the first couple of days in Eastern Europe anxiously awaiting Taras promised photo uploads of Candy. One of the more interesting points during the trip would have to be when I chanced upon a Lovepets-hamsters blog post which was sort of an obituary for one of Taras own hamsters, just three months old, crushed by a shelf in a moment of folly. I guess I genuinely feared for Candys life for a moment there. Anyway, the photos went up as promised and we marveled at how Tara had managed to expertly capture images of Candy in her natural habitat, yawning and preening like the spoilt girl she was. Then came the second batch of fun photos, which had us extremely excited as she looked perky again, her eyes completely normal-looking and her curiosity at an all-time high. Comparing the two batches of photos was mind-blowing; it was like Tarad treated Candys eye all by herself, all vet-like.

We made it a point on the cab back from the airport after the trip to collect Candy on that very same day. Jolene and I were just so desperate to see her again after so long, and so we made arrangements to fetch Candy back home from Taras.

That getaway did Candy a world of good. I mean it; such a large disparity between her behavior in the weeks leading up to our departure and that upon our return. She was curiously probing the entire journey back home; with the cage enclosed in a plastic bag, she constantly climbed to get a good view of her surroundings. The first time we picked her up after returning home was quite memorable - everybody noticed how the fur on her face looked noticeably shorter, and her eye was so much better. In fact, her fur in general looked to have regained its sheen from before the conjunctivitis. We made sure that wed collected the right hamster from Tara, and that no fur trimming had been done. Candy just looked so different; younger and more energetic, even. She was a mad furry ball of excitement once the cage was set back in its original spot; gleefully running all over, running the wheel (her way of expressing happiness, where she would run a couple of rounds and jump off to stare at us at attention, and then repeat multiple times) and standing on her hind legs - the latter being a newly developed habit, as we noted. She ran to the upper deck and stood on her hind legs for what seemed like an eternity, just staring at us with her own beady little eyes until we stroked her fur and offered her favourite carrot treat. Candy was back, and she was healthier than ever. A proud, almost burning flame of joy lit up in all of our hearts, I was sure of it.

January 2014So a couple of weeks passed from there as Jolene and I seemingly devoted more time than before to caring for and entertaining Candy. One thing we increasingly noticed was the true extent of her picky eating - shed take one nibble of any corn we gave her, and spit it out immediately, completely ignoring that fresh bit of food in front of her. She hated the corn, as wed soon realise, and would almost ever eat it unless she had nothing else left. I believe it was because the corn was too hard to nibble, and too big to grab comfortably for her tiny paws.

Mom also discovered that Candy loved it when people gave her attention while she ran the wheel. Shed squat by the cage and clap and cheer Candy on, and Candy would just keep going (taking quick breaks in between) until, well, she couldnt anymore. Attention whore.

February 2014I inadvertently played a Tom Morello solo on my phones speakers near Candys cage, and she completely flipped and freaked out, standing on her hindlegs with her ears perked up and a hilarious expression of horror on her face. There she froze for a good couple of seconds, before scurrying behind the toilet to her favourite corner, where she peeked over the top in obvious terror; just a funny little anecdote right there. Id continue to play her songs now and then. She seems indifferent to Jay Chou, for the most part.

One night, prior to my 2-day medical duty, I decided to play with Candy a little. The usual handling and caring, and then suddenly Candy decided to leap out of my grasp towards the ground before doing a parkour forward roll and then sprinting all over the floor. Thankfully, I was seated on the ground myself, and the drop was just a little longer than the leaps she usually did in her cage. No real damage done, as far as I could tell; just a mini-scare and lots of connection - I stroked her fur gently and looked into her deep, black, innocent eyes, telling her to calm down as her little heart continued to race (you can clearly feel her heartbeat when you have her in your hand, such a beautiful marvel of life!). She gazed seemingly knowingly into my eyes for a while, before vigorously cleaning her mouth with two hands the way she usually does.

Chinese New Year 2014The highlight of Chinese New Year for Candy was undoubtedly the family portrait we took when our relatives came visiting. I decided to screw everything and go grab Candy for the portrait, surprising everyone. Candy Chang belonged in the family portrait. I believe it was also the first picture Ive ever taken with her, where my face could actually be seen. As a result, though, she looked like a little pipsqueak in the picture.

It was also great to finally let Candy have some one-on-one interaction with my cousins dogs. Brandy and Crystal both undoubtedly scared the shit out of a quivering little Candy, and I was perhaps overprotective of her as I wouldnt let either dog near the cage. Candy climbed up to the top level and looked through the translucent plastic, then quickly ran back down to hide. It wasnt perfect, but at least shes now seen a dog. Or two.

2nd March 2014For Candys birthday (well, really, my sisters + Candys), we kept it simple - partially because of procrastination - a birthday cake for my sister, and a couple of posed pictures together with Candy. Candys cake was a bunch of her absolute favorite pine nuts, carrot treats and bread; aka severe obesity warning. We resolved to get Candy something even better for gift in the coming weeks.

20th March 2014A couple of weeks later, Candy Chang was back to improvising new little habits. We introduced a pink ping-pong ball as a new toy, which she did not really react to all that much initially. We tried everything - springing it as a surprise, gently laying it down onto her, throwing it at her - and nothing worked. Then, all of a sudden, she started noticing it when we laid it to rest on her back while she slept. Stirring, she jolted awake in shock and immediately stood on her hind legs, investigating the intrusion on her beauty sleep. We removed the ball, and suddenly she just fell gently backwards onto her back, lying face-up and twiddling her little paws in the air whilst staring at us with a terrified expression on her face. After a while, she got up, and then repeated the act in slow-motion, lying comfortably on her back. We threw the ball in, and finally she leapt up and pounced upon the ball, chasing it all the way across her cage. Thus began Candys friendship with the pink ping-pong ball.

By this time, Candy was also reverting to some of her old habits as a baby hamster for whatever reason. Shed wait eagerly for a food bowl refill every evening, jump straight in, devour all the sunflower seeds, and go to sleep. When we checked back on her a half hour later, we found her sleeping soundly in the upper-level pink box with sunflower seed shells scattered all around her. Another hour later, and shed switched positions, instead being flanked by the widest variety of nuts and corn bits youll ever see. Yes, shed stored all the food in her cheeks and gone to deposit all of them on the upper level, as if to trick us into thinking shed eaten all her food so as to get another refill out of us. Naughty girl.

23rd March 2014I finally got around to shopping for Candys birthday gift, but what started out as an unidentified cage extension soon became a full-blown new cage altogether. After referrals to Pets Kampong on multiple occasion for a wider range of products, I decided to wise up and pay them a visit alone at Yew Tee Point. Whilst they did have a wide range as promised, this only caused more problems for us as I squabbled with my sister over the phone, unable to decide on one cage through Whatsapped pictures. I spent maybe 45 minutes just standing in the aisles, failing to reach a consensus with the rest of my family at home, before my Dad suggested that hed seen a pretty nice one back in Pet Lovers Center at Lot One. I traveled back, and long story short, spent another half an hour there comparing and consulting the rest before finally settling on a bright yellow, grilled cage not dissimilar to our original one. It didnt catch my eye at first, truth be told, but eventually it just kind of fell into place that the 3-level behemoth of a dwelling would be far beyond a luxury for a sole hamster. I just felt Candy deserved a palace of her own. Apart from lacking a translucent base that would allow us to check in on her more easily, it seemed perfect; cute design, great ventilation, awesome slides that could have only existed prior in Candys dreams, and a hell lot more spacious. I mean a hell lot - to the extent that the cashiers and even a fellow customer remarked that shes going to love it. It even came with its own little hamster house, which rendered my previous purchase, the green house, useless. Beaming, I disregarded the use of a plastic bag in order to help save the Earth, and simply carried it home by the nifty little handle (another welcome addition), swaggering through the streets like a true boss but bursting with excitement inside, in anticipation of the grand introduction to Candys new home.

Everyone loved it. All that was left was to introduce Candy to her new dwelling. We left Candy to roam in her running ball, then proceeded to empty her old home, wash out the new cage (it was a display unit), fill it with bedding, food and water, and swap out the wheel for Candys old wheel. By the time we were done, shed already come knocking at our heels. We put her in through the roof of the cage, gently letting her onto the top floor, and watched in barely stifled excitement and wonder as she stood on her hinds, looked curious, and started exploring her new habitat. She loved the little hamster house from the start, and obviously dove right into her food bowl for a while. Then, she peered over the edge (the floors were cutaway) and retracted in fright multiple times before discovering the slide. Her first time down the slide was just hilarious - with no clue on how to control her descent, it was something of an awkward slide mid-motion with a loud FHROOOOP sound from the little steps within that were crafted to aid the climb back up. She emerged on the other end of the slide, on the second floor, looking mildly dazed; then she ventured forth and found her trusty wheel, ran it a couple of times, and catapulted off the edge of the cutaway into the bedding on the ground floor.

After dinner, we checked on her again and realised that shed remained on the ground floor the entire time, her food bowl on the top floor completely untouched. Puzzled, Jolene and I sat to monitor her progress for a very, very long time. Eventually, we spotted her trying to squeeze her fat ass into the slide for a climb, only to slide back down after barely getting her front paws onto the steps. We quickly realised a big issue there - what if Candy simply could not climb the steps? Was the cage too complicated for her? Would she starve on the ground floor? Was this because of her obvious obesity? The entire family got pretty worried for the rest of the night, frequently going back to monitor her only to see her lazing around on the ground floor. I, too, started feeling a little guilty - had I made the wrong choice and wound up torturing our little girl instead? Eventually, we fed her a good amount of food to tide her overnight, and Dad elected to leave two sunflower seeds at the top of the second-floor slide to test if shed be able to climb up and eat them by morning. We also lowered the floor platforms several levels down to reduce the angle of the slides slopes, as we feared they would be too steep for her to learn to climb. We all agreed on the plan, and my parents went to sleep.

Around 1am, though, I decided to go check on Candy right before bed out of concern, and because Im a crazed nocturnal insomniac. As I trudged towards the yard, I heard a faint rolling sound that sounded suspiciously like the hamster wheel running. Flustered, I flipped the lights to the marvelous sight of Candy Chang, resting contently on her wheel on the second floor like Cleopatra, slightly raising her head and nose to investigate the sudden brightness of her surroundings. I almost squealed out of delight, excitement and relief all at the same time; but I did clap loudly and cheer on our clever little girl! Hurrying to get my sister, we spent the next 10 minutes or so fixated on Candys movements as the oblivious hamster simply went about her own business, sauntering around on the second floor before choosing to slide down to the ground floor and disappear in the far corner. We got a little distracted, probably a combination of the time and us trying to get a good look at her, then I suddenly noticed Candys head slowly emerging from the end of the slide on the second floor, her having stealthily crawled across the ground floor to climb back up the slide. She then sauntered to the other slide, and slowly made her way up to the third floor, with us watching in astonishment as she conquered the steps. Sure, it was a bit of a struggle, particularly at the end for her to get her fat ass out of the slide, but we were just beaming with pride at that point and congratulated her further before heading to bed full of joy. I guess you could say we felt the unbridled joy from her finally conquering the slide and potentially experiencing unbridled joy of her own from realizing the grand, luxurious grounds that she now had to roam of her own. Sharing the news with my parents in the morning brought the family into a collective state of deliriousness probably previously unheard of. We were all just so proud of little Candys intelligence, finding her way up in just a few hours and generally being able to do anything she wanted. We loved accompanying her on her journey to explore the vast depths of her new dwelling; it was all just so exciting and it all wound up being a fabulous first birthday for Candy Chang indeed.

April - May 2014After a week or so, Dad elected to have the top (third) level removed as it was getting in the way of our interaction with Candy, and made it extremely difficult to replace her food and water, and clean her toilet. I wasnt happy with the decision as Id been so excited about the multi-storey complex due to its nature in the first place, but eventually relented and gave it a shot. Candy appeared confused at first that the second slide had disappeared, but this modification also allowed us to reduce the angle of the slide even further, making it a lot easier for Candy to climb up and down. It gave us a better view of things as well, and seemed like a fine choice, although all of that vertical space left much to be desired. Still, it made it much easier for us to pick Candy up out of her cage, and she started watching extremely brief parts of Manchester United games with us, for example. I also had her roam around in my lap or simply sit in my hands to watch the kickoffs whenever there was an NFL game on. Id become completely comfortable with Candy, interacting with her without any fear and generally trying to have her around to experience new things whenever possible. Shes watched soccer, football and hockey by now, and listened to much of my music library.

Much of these 2 months were spent having Candy explore her cage, get used to it, pick out new favorite spots, and generally pimp her palace. She was definitely excited and happy, and often ran the wheel to show it. We let her exercise regularly, and eventually started placing the cardboard rolls of toilet paper in her cage (after washing, of course). Mom later decided that I was stupid for doing that, and instead used the cardboard/paper rolls off kitchen towels for a tunnel. Candy loved that roll. Shed tunnel through it, and appear on the other side, and then tunnel through again to come back. Shed nibble the edges, which necessitated a change every few weeks, and would often climb over it for the fun of it. Shed also developed a tendency to attempt suicide, as shed often jump down from the 2nd level or really any surface that she could get up to. Sometimes shed watch us refill her food bowl from the 2nd level like an overlord, follow the food bowl with her eyes as we proceeded to place the bowl back down on the 1st floor, and just leap down to commence consumption because she couldnt wait to take the proper slide down.

It was also around this time that Candy began to somehow climb up the grills of her cage right to the top, such that her snout could actually reach through the ceiling of her cage. It was incredible strength and athleticism given her stick-thin limbs, and I trained her to do so by holding a treat up in the air and letting her climb all the way up to get it. Remember, this includes all the vertical space now vacated by the removal of the 3rd floor. Shes a strong girl! Shed quiver a little, but she made it nonetheless, and shed sometimes do this early in the mornings when demanding a treat/refill of the food bowl. The concerning way was how she descended from the top - an awkward slide down akin to a stupid kid failing down a firemans pole, but she never got hurt or anything, which was good.

8th June 2014We eventually decided that Candy was severely obese - far too overweight for her own good. She wasnt running the wheel every day anymore, had become extremely greedy and protective of her food bowl, and was generally lazy. It was decided that we would put her on a diet by limiting her food intake, giving her favorite sunflower seeds sparingly, and encouraging her to exercise more. We also encouraged her to eat more of the other seeds and nuts in her food mix, although even now she refuses to touch the hard corn, only gobbling up popcorn the moment she sensed it. The first few days of the experiment saw Candy actually become more energetic, if only to vent her frustration - I tried to let her crawl on to my hand, and she leapt on to bite deep and hard into my palm, refusing to let go even as I shook and winced in pain; it was as though she knew that it was my grand idea to limit her food supply so drastically.

15th June 2014She definitely looked slimmer and a bit more active after a week or so, and it looked like the weight loss was going well. However, at this time I noticed that she was beginning to lose a little bit of fur, as we could see some of it in a corner on the 2nd level. Examining her close-up, we noticed that her ass (or tail area) fur was a bit sparse compared to before, although generally her coat still looked fabulous all over the place. For about an hour I freaked out in front of my computer researching wet tail, as it sure looked like her rear end was wet and matted. Thankfully, there were zero signs of diarrhea, confirming that wet tail was not the issue. It looked to be simply the change in bedding to a rougher type that may have caused some abrasion on her underbelly. We resolved to change her bedding to tissue paper, just to monitor her condition.

29th June 2014Except we didnt actually do that. Wed simply switched to a less abrasive bedding containing recycled paper and the results were extremely encouraging. There was still a little fur loss, but we were talking stray strands instead of the initially horrifying clump we discovered the first time round. It seemed an allergen was at work; Candys activity levels skyrocketed over the week, and she started developing crazy habits with her hyperactivity. Yes, her underbelly/ass was still a little bald, but her back and sides were still lush with fur. Anyway, she started to bite furiously at the cage grills routinely every morning when we all woke up, and in the night at around 8pm when she expected a refill of her food bowl. In our rush to stop her from chewing on them bars, we realized she either used this to signal for her feeding time, or to be let out of the cage for a run. When we did either of those things, shed stop biting and go mess around somewhere else. She also suddenly went back to running her wheel daily, and, hilariously, started doing these crazy flips in her toilet where shed scratch at the cover so furiously that shed roll backwards and end up on her back with her eyes squinted. Still no idea what that meant. Still, we were delighted with her increased activity levels and her slimmer, healthier look even though her fur was still a little patchy on the underbelly.

15th July 2014Ive started to notice the eyelid abscess thing resurfacing for both of Candys eyes. Her activity levels were still sky high, and she remained healthy and happy. We thought nothing of it, and simply decided to monitor it for the next week or so. It seemed like the size fluctuated, or at least that the fur or her eyelid would cover it up when she groomed, hiding it. It did not seem to affect her vision in any way. Her fur situation was getting from bad to worse, however, and decided on a visit to the vet in the near future, but not before trying one more brand of bedding.

27th July 2014Finally, we knocked ourselves out of the delusion that things were getting any better, and took her to the vet for her second trip in 2 years - not bad, Id say. The vet this time round wasnt the same one who handled her so expertly last year, and had me coming away feeling pretty unconvinced and unassured. She had no idea if it was a tumor, and even after examining under Candys eyelid and finding an obvious pus bubble (meaning bacterial infection by any standards), she still could not give as confident a diagnosis as the vet from last year. The fur condition was, however, accurately diagnosed as fungal in nature, and Candy was prescribed the same antibiotics and eyedrops from before, and an added course of anti fungal syrup along with S10 solution to be rubbed on her fur twice a day (and then immediately wiped off after, for whatever reason). Interesting note - whilst waiting for the medicine to be dispensed, a lady came in carrying a cat, late 20s or early 30s, smiled, and asked about Candy while in the queue. Feeling pretty under the weather, I gave a pretty shitty curt response (her eye), drawing a sympathetic oh as she took a quick look before turning back to her cat. After wrestling with the idea of not being an aloof asshole for once, I mustered up a whats wrong with your cat? Turns out, shed found the cat off the streets in obvious distress, and decided to personally have him/her checked out at the vet. I couldnt hear what she was told at the counter after explaining her situation, but she then promptly left the vet without a consultation. I wonder how the cats doing.

August 2014We spent the next two weeks committing to helping Candy get better - waking up early to prepare the antibiotics, my dad faithfully administering the eyedrops and applying the S10, and generally leaving her to rest without disturbance. After a week and a half, the fur was clearly getting better and growing back in spots, but her eye looked worse and worse, ballooning until itd looked like it was gonna explode. Highly concerning stuff. I decided, however, to hold off another visit to the vet and simply observe for a few days after the two weeks worth of medication had run it course, because last year itd appeared that her eye got way better weeks after the round of drugs had been completed, when she was vacationing at Taras. Sure enough, a week after the fact, we were very happy with the progress of her fur growth, and her eye swelling had gone down to the point where her left eye was borderline normal - and I mean really, really close to normal; a tiny, barely-there swelling left, while her right eye had similarly improved - still noticeable, but way better than the period which forced us to take her to the vet again. She looked slimmer, snappier, healthier, happier.

Eventually, her fur was lush, fluffy and well-groomed again, and vain little Candy was happy. However, she no longer had any interest in the pink ball that rested at the bottom of her cage, and thus we had it thrown out. I started thinking of a toy I could get her as a replacement. At this point, shed also stopped flipping over in her bathing sand for the most part, save for maybe once, but had learned to groom herself in a more gentle manner. I also become even more liberal about letting Candy explore the house, like my table, my bed, my parents bed etc.

So some time after that I decided to conduct a little experiment after noticing that Candy had sort of forgotten her potty training. That far, dark corner that she had christened her nest of sorts remained the same, but she was pooping everywhere and peeing near the slide instead. I removed her little house and instead put her bathing sand there permanently, and put the toilet right in her personal corner. She never went back up the slide again (exaggerating of course) after discovering that some sand had taken the place of her beloved hideaway, and instead turned to sleeping in the toilet whilst continuing to defecate everywhere else. Then I tried putting some of her poop and urine-stained litter into the toilet to mark that as her spot. She stopped sleeping in there, but continued to conduct elsewhere. Then, just poop in the toilet - she would sleep in there AND poop some in there whilst continuing to poop just about everywhere else. Kinda gave up on the pee after that - there was no changing her desire to pee right at the base of the freaking slide shed have to frequent to go upstairs to the wheel.

2nd September 2014Candy loves her nests. One night, I threw a bunch of tissue paper all over her whilst she had been feasting (sitting in her food bowl, that fat lazy slob), and immediately she spun into a frenzy, acrobatically turning upside down and leaning backwards so far she fell backwards, desperately trying to claw her way out of the pile of tissue paper. When she popped back up on top, she immediately started tearing away with her tiny paws and those busy teeth, grabbing a clump and ripping away with her mouth. Once shed settled on a satisfactory piece, she ran straight back to her favourite corner (diagonally across where her food bowl was), still holding onto that tissue piece in her mouth, and threw it there before scurrying back with intense fervor the rest of the deposit and repeating the motion. Real hardworking stuff, considering Id only woken her up 5 minutes ago by shaking the food bowl - she went from the usual dazed, relaxed ears, barely-opened eyes look to this intense, sharp, wide-eyed excitement. During some shuttles, shed drop the piece of tissue she had been holding on to and not notice it until shed reached the far corner, where she stood straight up alert, glancing around anxiously before spotting it back on the trail and scurrying back to pick it back up and ferry it across.

To mess with her, I removed the bathing sand and restored her hamster house to its rightful location whilst she was scurrying around. Almost telepathically, right after shed finished transporting all the pieces of tissue paper, she stood straight up for a split second, ears up in the air as though shed felt something change, and immediately ran straight up the slide to find her beloved hideout, restored to its former glory. I swear I saw her do a double-take with a quick swivel of her neck as though in disbelief; she ran straight in, and then popped out a millisecond later in a way unlike Id seen her before: instead of just sticking her head out from a normal standing position, shed twisted her body and popped her head out such that it was sideways, if you catch the drift; two paws holding onto the side of the doorway, head stuck out horizontally, and she just stared straight out that direction for like 3-4 seconds before zipping back into the cosiness of her abode. Real funny stuff. I thusly decided that I would give her some tissue paper for a nest every week after cleaning her cage.

25th September 2014I woke up late in the morning because I only needed to report to camp in the afternoon. Going over to check on Candy, I noticed drops of dried blood at both ends of the slide, and a reddish spot on her left hind leg whilst she was sleeping upside down. It did look like she had been murdered, all things considered! I checked under her little bathroom and running wheel, both of which she likes to hide under, but could not find any blood stains. During my examination, she happened to wake up and sprint up to the second level. That was when I noticed another deep, nasty looking cut on her back. Putting two and two together, I hypothesized that all of the stupid gashes and cuts must be wounds from her scratching and grooming. It made sense all the more when I realised that her left hind leg was precisely the limb she used to reach that exact area on her back where all the scratches had been appearing in the vicinity of. I texted the rest of my family, and we decided to check on her in the evening. When we did so, the wound had started healing up a little, so that was good. Still, it seemed inevitable that we would have to look at trimming her nails to prevent this kind of mishap in the future.

Then, later in the night, the unthinkable happened. This has seriously never happened before, but Candy Chang actually fell asleep in my hand. It happened in weird enough fashion: trying to let Jolene handle her, she sort of gripped too tightly and Candy sprinted out of her hands and into her pencil box. I picked Candy up with my left hand, and started berating Jolene whilst stroking Candys fur. It went on for maybe a minute or so before Jolene noticed that Candy looked tired, and her eyes were slowly closing. We watched in amazement as Candys eyes just softly fell closed, and there she was, a tiny being asleep in the feather-soft grip of my left hand - legs spayed apart, tiny paws gripping on, it appeared that my boring tirade coupled with her comfortable position (back lying against my palm) was enough to lull her into a deep sleep. My parents were called in silently by my excited sister, and they too marveled at the sight. It felt like a whole other level of bonding right there, like a fragment of time crystallized as we all did our best not to make a sound (although my mom had to prod her tiny hind legs a couple of times), just watching her slow breathing. It was a magical moment, and I could not do anything but sit there and not move a muscle to let her sleep. About 5 minutes or so later, she twitched a couple of times and woke up, clearly dazed and confused. I then put her back in her running ball and let her run back to her home.

27th September 2014We had the first serious health shock of Candys life with us. I woke up in the late morning, and noticed that she really wasnt moving much, and lay flat in her usual corner. Now, even the day before, right after the time she fell asleep in my hand, Id already started to observe a serious drop in her energy level, but this was off the charts. She hadnt eaten almost anything in the 2 days, did not move a bit almost all day, and simply slept and slept and slept. What really alerted me to a problem was that her lack of reaction when I placed a sunflower seed at her nose. Usually, shed jump straight at my hand. Not in that moment; instead, I was mortified to watch her seriously struggle to even climb out of her toilet, which really doesnt have a steep step at all. I anxiously called the rest of the family over, and we watched as she labored around, as though her hind legs were woozy and she couldnt balance herself. When I picked her up, she felt hellishly light, completely limp, and looked really pale. Most tellingly, when I lay her on her back in my palm, she could not flip herself over! Shes usually terrified of being flipped on her back and would almost instantly jump right back on her feet, but all we saw was a feeble attempt at reaching her tiny paws around to right herself. It was horrifying. Mom actually said to monitor her condition until the evening before we decided to bring her to the vet, but I was having none of that, and Dad agreed to drive us over on the spot.

The ride was a nervy one. Candy just couldnt stand up on her own. It marked the second time we genuinely feared for her young life. Only 18 months old at that point, old age was out of the question for this alarming drop-off in vitality. We just had no idea what had happened to her. When we got there, after describing the problem at the triage (Dad said that she wasnt moving much, prompting the nurse to worriedly ask if shed been moving at all), the nurses decided to quickly bring her in for fear of it being an emergency case. I sat down and felt really weak. Nothing at all had changed this entire time, so how could Candy even have fallen sick, let alone so dramatically? Was it organ failure? I dreaded the so-called e-room examination that took maybe 20 minutes or so, before the nurse brought her out and said that that doctor did not think of it as an emergency, bringing us a huge sigh of relief. Only problem? We were then slotted back into the back of the queue as walk-ins. For two hours I sat there with Candys cage on my lap, watching her as she drifted in and out of interrupted sleep. Shed get woken up by the dogs in the waiting area, but simply could not even look up to investigate, let alone stand straight up as she usually would. She could hardly take a step out of the toilet, and when she did, she looked frail and weak. It was just really scary.

When we finally went in there, I genuinely felt my heart pounding away as the vet examined her. First, she had me pick her up and flip her over for a chest/stomach examination. When the vet palpated her stomach, she let out a squeak that would usually be sharp, shrill and full of intent - instead, it was meek, barely audible, and got me even more worried than before. Something was definitely wrong. After running through a couple of questions, checking up on her and conducting general physical examinations, the vet then asked to place Candy on the weighing scale.

Thats when the shit really hit the fan. Candys weight on the day - 47g. The two visits prior, she weighed at 61, then 63g, and those were considered nearly topping out the normal range. I flipped out in a really controlled way. Thats a really significant loss in body mass, and we hadnt seen any vomit or pee or any kind of discharge really! I was bewildered, and started fretting over where all that weight had gone. It was frankly ridiculous, but accounted for her total lack of energy, and that feeling of lightness and nothingness when we held her. It was all of that missing weight! We then put her on the table to observe her movement. The problem became obvious almost immediately. She couldnt and didnt walk, because her legs couldnt support her body! She got up on her front legs kinda, but then struggled mightily to lift her ass off the surface because her hind legs had practically zero power. It took her way too long to get up, and even then it was a wobbly form, legs clearly not fully extended. It was bad. She waded around slowly, wobbling and ambling and looking really bad. The vet then had me pick her up while she cleaned out some discharge from her eyes, which immediately gave her a short burst of slight energy. Still, she could not offer any real explanation. Was it a cold? Flu? Viral attack? Organ failure? She threw out some possibilities whilst admitting that it was near-impossible to evaluate a small animal, and then prescribed her a plethora of medication. There was a round of antibiotics for her eye, some eye saline, a disinfectant for her little scratch, and most importantly, another round of antibiotics (gastroenteric) and OxBow Critical Care feed, which she instructed us to force-feed to Candy for as long as she wasnt eating. Which she clearly wasnt, given her weight loss. I went away slightly dissatisfied with the lack of professional judgment offered, but it was understandable on her part to say the least.

And so, we brought Candy home with a renewed concern for her daily activity. Setting her cage back down where it usually rests, we decided to begin the medication only in the evening. Before we let her rest though, I placed a piece of bread in front of her to see if she would eat it.

When we checked on her in the evening, we saw that piece of bread only slightly eaten, and thrown out from the toilet, where she was resting. It was time to administer the force-fed slurry. The instructions were straightforward: mixing some Critical Care with water, we were to draw 1 ml with the syringe and force it down her throat three times a day. Except the very first time we tried it, she put up way more resistance than wed expected. Arms swinging weakly, head turning away, squirming, she was having none of it. Shed taken the antibiotics fairly easily, but she just would not let that syringe loaded with Critical Care near her. It was almost adorable, had she not been so feeble and sickly. Eventually, she even settled into refusing to open her mouth under any circumstance. Slightly hilarious. She had this defiant look on her face that would become a mainstay each time we tried to feed her the Critical Care, and shed just refuse to open her mouth that my Dad had to kind of pry it open to ensure she was consuming enough for sustenance. The problem was that she wouldnt eat much of anything for whatever reason, and so it had to be a little rough, unfortunately.

30th September 2014 - 1st October 2014Wed decided to hold off on the other medication until shed recovered from this not-eating-itis. I joked that shed turned anorexic due to us calling her a fatass all the time. Hearteningly though, her daily recovery progress was extremely impressive. She was still being extremely difficult to deal with, especially in feeding her the Critical Care, leading to everyone waking up slightly earlier than normal to ensure that wed get that step down for the day, but her strength was quickly returning, and it became apparent by the third day (out of five, for the full antibiotic course), when she began to utilise her hands like a defensive lineman would with a swim move in the pass rush. Really good use of hands, as NFL scouts would say. She was turning away, swatting the syringe away with both hands, slapping it, wrestling itit was awesome stuff. Now, wed generally left her alone all day besides feeding her the medication, because rest was the priority. We checked in on her more than we ever did, and it became obvious that she was ambulating far more normally by then, able to move around easily and effortlessly whilst beginning to pick out sunflower seeds from her food bowl for selective consumption. Dad also commented that hed felt her struggling in his grip becoming increasingly stronger. It was fantastic news for everyone involved, although this came with boatloads of pee given the water-based nature of the Critical Care feed.

2nd October 2014By the final day of her antibiotics course, shed almost returned to full health. Eating heartily again, shed instantly gobble up anything we fed her, apart from that damned Critical Care! She was hopping around, running around, climbing up, standing upshe was good. Not 100%, but basically ready to wrap up the medication. It was a full recovery, we were delighted and relieved, and she looked happy, hungry and all feisty again. The decision to immediately evacuate her to the vet may very well have been a literal lifesaver.

November 2014Candys made a full recovery, back to normal, and jumping at hands in general. Its been a year since I first started working at Sungei Gedong Medical Center. I felt blessed to know that even if my parents and sister werent home, thered always be someone waiting for somebody to return home. I treasured each and every morning I woke up to see Candy scurrying around, burrowing in her bedding or sleeping softly, and every night I could change her water for her and tell her goodnight, knowing that shed be up before any of us the next day, already waiting for her food refill.

Not much of note happened, although I began toying with the idea of having the 3rd floor of her cage put back on so that she had even more vertical space to explore. My parents felt it would be too difficult to get to the food bowl and locate her, however, and I could see their point.

1st December 2014Were going to Japan for our vacation this year, and Candy will once again be sent to Taras home for her own vacation. Shed gotten fat and fluffy again, and we joked that shed return slimmer from Taras due to her dieting methods there.

End December 2014Back from Japan, which was awesome, and Candys back from Taras as well. We specially had the cab driver take us to Taras on the way back from the airport as nobody could wait to see our little girl again. Candy did look slimmer, as a matter of fact. Our hearts warmed at seeing her familiar little paws stick out of her paper tube, and her big, black, deep gazing eyes emerging from the dark. Wed gotten our updates as usual from Tara, of course, but nothing beats the feeling holding her in our hands again. She got a lot of food for the rest of the month, and at this point we decided not to have a chopstick in her cage any longer, for shed stopped biting on her cage grills for months now. I had her sit on my shoulder whilst I played video games, had her run around on our sofa, my bed, our tables I wanted her to know her home.

January 2015After the start of the New Year, I looked back and concluded that Candy and our family had gotten to a point of almost full trust now. Her 2nd birthday was coming up, and shed become so familiar with the house by now that we didnt really have to watch her while she exercised in her running ball any longer. Well, to be frank, this has been the case since after her 1st birthday.

Modus Operandi:Id pop her in the ball and watch the time for 30 minutes while we all did our own things in our own rooms, and Candy would roll around happily by herself, exploring different rooms every day; sometimes she would roll into my room for a bit, roll around near my legs, and Id pat the ball a little before she rolled back out into the hall and towards another room. When I called time, Id open the yard door and walk her back to her cage, although most of the time shed hear the door open and immediately start sprinting back to her cage by herself.

Sometimes, Id try and put her in different corners or rooms of the house just to test her, and shed always find her way back to her cage because shes smart like that. Literally any corner. Id place her in the corner of the living room with the coffee table, and watch her immediately navigate around the table legs, run behind the sofa and find the straight path to the yard. Id place her in my sisters room, under the bed, and shed roll all the way back to the yard. Id put her in the corner of the master bedroom, turn off the lights, and wait for a minute at most before shed come scampering out of the darkness, either taking the path straight under the bed or going around it. Shed sometimes come to a stop at the closed yard door and start running at it repeatedly to knock and get us to open it.

Ive also been pleasantly surprised multiple times, when Id have her in my room, leave the door ajar but flushed to the frame such that there wouldnt be a gap for her running ball to fit through and shed have to stay in my room for a bit, and turn to use the computer, only to realize 10 minutes later that shed somehow found a way to swing the door open (bear in mind it opens inwards) and escape towards the yard. When you think about it, its quite impossible. Id imagine shed just kept knocking at it until a lucky breeze helped generate momentum to have the door swing open just enough for her running ball to fit through. Shes really, really, really smart. Although sometimes shed run into the toilet for no reason, and get stuck in there because of the ledge.

That doesnt mean she cant navigate around ledges, however. Weve experimented with this once: since the kitchen and yard doors are adjacent to each other, wed leave both doors open, and place her on the ledge of the kitchen doorway, teetering right on the edge in her running ball. Weve observed that shed take a good look at the kitchen, swivel around in her ball, and turn the other way to run into the yard instead. That is remarkable equilibrioception, considering that shed only have to move the wrong way just a hair to have her running ball rotate/roll and drop into the kitchen. Shes done this every time weve tested her.

Other times, Id follow her around or take the lead and have her follow me around. Of course, as always, her exercise session occurred every day without fail, and has undoubtedly contributed to her good constitution. Some days, shed get lazy, and I wouldnt reward her with a special treat at the end, but for the most part, a carrot piece or dried vegetable treat would be waiting for her in her wheel.

Ive also caught Candy attempting one of her dastardly tricks. Some days, shed wait by the food bowl for it to be filled, jump right in and empty its contents into her cheek pouches, and then run into the far corner of the cage. One of us would notice her empty bowl and refill it for her, and so on. I called her bluff, removed the top of the cage, and found her in the corner with all her food lined up on the floor next to her, hidden amongst the tissue paper that formed her nest. Shed been pulling the same trick again to get more food out of us, and this often resulted in wastage as wed have to throw away the week-old food stored in her secret corner. Cheeky.

Chinese New Year 2015For Chinese New Year, as with the year prior, we had a family portrait taken when our relatives came visiting. Again, I stood everyone up by insisting on coaxing Candy out of her cage for the photo. It felt right, and it felt complete to have her in my hands for the second year in a row, even if she really didnt know what she was doing. She was family, after all. I let a couple of relatives hold her, and she nipped them all in the hands after a few seconds. This was when I truly realized that Candy had gotten comfortable with us, or at least myself. When they quickly tried to pass Candy back into my hands, Candys eyes were shut closed in fear and she was squirming. Upon landing on her back in my palm, she immediately did a surface clamp on my index finger with her sharp jaws where I felt her teeth on my skin, when she suddenly paused, opened her eyes, looked at me, and then released my finger. That was undoubtedly the recognition of family and safety, coming out of a strangers hands. It was heartwarming to know.

I enjoyed having other people bring their pets (dogs) over as well, as it gave Candy the animal interaction wed been unable to provide her. She stood up against the grills and looked out in amazement and confusion at the much larger beast with a stunned expression on her face. I didnt feel safe having just the cage grills in the way of a dogs snout and Candys tiny snout, so I had her in the running ball and it was hilarious to watch the dog back away in fear of the Candy Ball rolling around. Eventually though, I feared for Candys life as the dogs seemed a little too eager to mess with the ball and knock it around, so I quickly placed her back in her cage and shut the yard door. The fricking dog tried to race me to the door, even. Still, I hoped that Candy had at least some fun coming into contact with dogs again.

End February 2015Candy Chang watched the classic, timeless 2nd OP of Zeta Gundam. I should let her watch the first part of Drive, too.

2nd March 2015Candy celebrated her 2nd birthday today, with my sister also celebrating her 18th. She got plenty of treats, and when my sisters friends surprised her by showing up at our house (apparently a few of the same ones who brought Candy into our lives), they expressed pleasant surprise at Candys good health. Pictures were taken of the two birthday girls and it was a merry, joyous occasion, of course. For Candy, it was a milestone to have reached 2 years old, and to have enjoyed such a long and healthy life. She was well and truly a senior citizen now, but still remained super active, albeit not like when she was a baby. We felt optimistic that she would be around for quite a while yet, and we were thankful for it.

End March 2015After ORD, time flew as I awaited the US college admission decisions. I did the usual every morning I was home, bringing Candys cage to the living room, sometimes letting her out, sometimes letting her sit in my lap, playing music out loud so that we could both enjoy it. She watched me play on my PS4 as well, although most of the time she just ate and slept and did her own thing. For about two weeks, she had intermittent spotting of blood, apparently due to her period, and although I was a little concerned, her eating and activity levels remained high, and all I really had to do was wipe her arse where she couldnt reach to groom. I stacked my PS4 games up and let her climb up and down, let her roam free on the carpet, and let her play with the Dualshock, only pulling her away when she began to nibble on the analogs. It was slightly tricky to grab her like this, as her thick, light gray-and-white fur was soft, almost like cotton, but she was strong.

One of the things I wondered in the days leading up to April Fools was the prospect of leaving Candy behind for college. I wouldnt miss my family or Singapore or anything, simply because I knew that they would always be around and easily contactable, but I did factor into account the fact that Candy was now a senior citizen, an old lady hamster, and wouldnt be around forever. Could I leave her behind, knowing that she might forget my scent (or whatever she uses to recognize me by) over the 10 weeks+++ that I would be away? After struggling with the decision for a bit, I knew that the right choice would have been to go anyway, as I believed that Candy would reach her 3rd birthday and would still be around when I eventually returned for break. In the last few days of the month, Id also felt like Candy had gotten lighter for some reason.

2nd April 2015I didnt go out today, and had Candys cage brought to the living room again. I did my thing for most of the morning, but by afternoon Id noticed that Candy was struggling a little and stumbling around in her cage. She still climbed up and down the slide and ran the wheel a little, but I noticed her stumbling in and out of her food bowl, for example. Furthermore, shed stopped eating anything but her favourite sunflower seeds. She seemed restless, and it looked like she had trouble sleeping, and was changing locations to try and make herself more comfortable. After picking her up and realizing that shed become ridiculously light, I immediately called up Mom and told her about this, and we decided that wed bring her to the vet again. Shocker, the CCK branch of the Joyous Vet was closed; after dinner, Dad and I took her to the Yuan Ching branch instead. Candy was super curious during the bumpy car ride.

When we were eventually seen by the vet, she told us that Candys condition was likely due to old age and that she was surprised by how otherwise healthy shed been. 2 years is a pretty long time for any hamster, let alone a dwarf hamster, and she raised a point that Id previously been made aware of: hamsters typically conceal any signs of pain or weakness due to being natural preys, and typically only let up towards the very end. I was pretty adamant/stubborn throughout the session, however, believing it to be a similar viral infection as the one in September last year. However, Candy is a full 2 years old now. She also did a heart examination and was happy to announce that Candys heart remained very strong. Candy was prescribed almost the same medication as before, except nerve and heart supplements were thrown in, as well as a painkiller that we were instructed to use only if Candy started showing signs of pain. I was pretty confident that I wouldnt have to touch the painkiller. However, Candy looked lethargic and weak on the examination table. It was worrying. She was 42g, a whole 5g lighter than the last time this viral infection struck.

We force-fed her Critical Care just as before, gave her the antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medication, as well as the supplements. No painkiller. Candy seemed a lot more energetic all of a sudden.

3rd April 2015It seemed like Candy was making steady progress in her recovery. I woke up and gave her the Critical Care and medication first thing in the morning, and by afternoon when I fed her again, she had the strength to squirm and push the syringe away from her mouth. I was hopeful. I noticed something peculiar afterwards, however; Candy had gotten herself hunched over the paper tube that she would often shuttle herself through and wasnt moving, although her eyes were wide open. I recognized immediately that she was simply trying to climb over the tube as she, too, oft did, but did not have the hind leg strength to push herself over the top. I sat and watched her just lie on top of the tube for a full minute or so before aborting the mission. It was disheartening, but in the evening, we saw her climb up and down her slide again. Dad also noted that shed climbed onto her all-time favourite running wheel and attempted to run, albeit without success. I saw her climb up to the second floor and jump off the edge like she loves to do, for absolutely no reason at all. With all this, I genuinely thought that she was well on her way to full health. All seemed well.

4th April 2015I woke up late and gave Candy the usual. My parents came back in the afternoon and told me that Candy had been climbing up and down the slide, and even got onto the wheel and ran a slow-motion round. I saw that as good news. I told Mom about the paper tube incident from yesterday, and she told me that shed also seen Candy try it in the morning and actually succeed in getting over the top.

In the afternoon, when I fed her the Critical Care, however, something seemed off. Lying in the palm of my hand and facing upwards, Candy seemed even more lifeless than beforeshe could only take 0.5ml of the liquid food before she started hiccuping. I found this odd and decided not to give her any more of it, but as I lay my hand to the bedding I found that she couldnt really climb out of my palm by herself. I brushed it off, however, as a bit of discomfort with the hiccups and all, and left her to rest, although I did periodically go back and observe her resting in the same position through the next hours.

I checked on her at 10.45pm for her nightly dose of medication, during half-time of the Manchester United game vs Aston Villa. Unitedd just scored before the half ended. I took the lid off the cage, and saw Candy lying in the same spot shed been in since the afternoon, still with her little hiccups.

Picking her up and holding her in my palm facing up, it immediately hit me; it felt like she wasnt going to make it. She made a soft clicking sound whenever she hiccupped, almost like a gasp, and occasionally opened her mouth wide almost like a silent cry. I fought hard to stay silent with my parents still in the living room, steeled my heart, and desperately did everything in double-time. Again, preparing the Critical Care, feeding it to her, and then shuttling back and forth with each dose of medication, not even bothering to ask Dad for help. I knew I had to give the painkiller this time; it would cause drowsiness and help alleviate her pain. Feeding it to her, as with all the other medication, it quickly became apparent that she simply couldnt take anything more. She still had the strength to push the syringe away, but I could truly feel her life fading away in my palm, and a sense of dread and finality dawned upon me. I had to pet her and tell her it would be alright before finally getting her to open her mouth long enough between gasps to down the liquid.

Placing her back upright into the cage, I watched heartbroken as she struggled for a short while before falling back onto her side, still hiccuping/gasping. From prior research, I knew this to be a sign of pain. She had to lie on her side for comfort, and I just felt so helpless and sick. I fixed her cage up again, hesitated for a moment, then decided to refill her water bottle as well. I knew very well that it was the end, but deep down I wanted so badly for her to make it through this that I didnt want it to seem like Id lost all hope. My last words to Candy were that she was going to make it. It waspainful to see her in this state, a shadow of how shes been these 2 years. Again, she hadnt lost any fur, but she looked disheveled and unkempt, her once lustrous fur in thick clumps, her light gray inevitably turned dark from a lack of grooming and the snow, winter white underbelly seemingly wet and naked. Not wet tail, but she just couldnt muster up the strength to clean up anymore. She lay near-motionless, a far cry from the bundle of energy and nippy life that we all knew. I saw in her soft breathing, interjected by rough hiccups, the same Candy Ive always known, and yet in her present state I could do absolutely nothing. I thought for a moment about there being absolutely nothing in the world that could help make Candy feel better now; even with all the advancements in medical technology and knowledge, small animals were too risky to operate on, and frankly, theyre too frail and small to risk testing expensive procedures on. I wanted to see her jump into my hand one last time, but we just dont always get what we want.

I then headed to the living room to tell my parents what I thought, and implored that they leave her to rest for the rest of the night. The shock and disappointment on their facesalthough Dad had seen it coming. I told Jolene in her room. She protested, and then after a while came to the living room and cried. In my heart, I did not fully believe that it was all going to be over, but my head knew that it was the last stretch for Candy. I watched the game for about 10 minutes more before telling my parents that I simply couldnt continue. My true reason for going to bed early was essentially to fast-forward to next morning, when I believed I would see Candy crawling around in her cage again. I couldnt fall asleep easily and really felt like going to the yard to check on her, but managed to restrain myself. Just before drifting off to sleep, however, I got a soft feeling that Candy had passed on, like my body heat had suddenly disappeared and everything felt cool and calm.

5th April 2015I was woken by Dad at around 8.30am, and he told me straight that Candys gone. I asked him twice if he was being serious. Mom came in looking sad, but I didnt buy any of it and immediately made my way over to her cage. The bedding had been cleaned out, and I desperately hunted for her all over until Dad brought out a green box and lifted the lid. There she lay. Candy Chang. Her fur disheveled, although she hadnt actually lost any; she simply hadnt been able to groom herself in the last few days of her life. Her eyes closed, peacefully. To be honest, it looked like shed died in pain given how bad she looked, but we knew that shed passed peacefully, and with the help of painkillers, in her sleep. I just could not believe how quickly it came; just a couple of days ago, the day we brought her to the vet, shed still been climbing up and down, albeit slowly. Her fur was full, thick and lustrous, and now I remember staring intensely at her body, looking for signs of the soft breathing Ive come to know so well from watching her sleep these two years. No dice. Dad had woken up at 6am to find that her body had already hardened. I didnt cry, but gave her a final pet/stroke. Dad had already gotten dressed and was going to drive her to the pet cemetery. We woke Jolene up. I couldnt watch, so I went back to my room. She cried. Dad didnt cry, but I knew more than anything that Dad was truly upset, maybe even more than I was, impossible as that sounds. Dad left with Candy. I was at a loss. I didnt know what the exact cause of death was, but I do wager it was either organ failure due to old age at some point last afternoon, or her immune system simply being too weak to overcome the viral attack at her advanced age. She had no other health problems. I sat down with Mom and Jolene and finally told them about the Rainbow Bridge. I cried.

These wont be my last words about Candy Chang, of course, but to wrap this incredibly long journal thing up and truly celebrate her life, I wanted to reflect on the last 2 years with her in the family. It was far too short, and I definitely drew that line up there way earlier than I wanted to. Truthfully, Id been supremely confident that Candy would live to see her 3rd birthday, because shed been so healthy and fortunate for the most part.

I cant claim to have taken perfect care of Candy in her life. Shes had her accidents and mishaps, and weve all made mistakes as first-time owners. We were lucky that she never fell from a great height, and that we always managed to locate her whenever she left her cage. She was also lucky, I feel, to have been the one scooped up that night in the pet store; lord knows where the rest of her cagemates/siblings/parents are right now. She passed away peacefully, never had any health problems, never had tumors like many other hamsters, and lived a long, happy life, having almost everything she could have wanted. She aged gracefully, and although the end came far too quickly, we know that shell finally be playing with all the other animals in those lush plains, waiting for the rest of her family to join her before we all cross the Rainbow Bridge together, her in my hands, just like the Chinese New Year family portraits weve taken these 2 years. Writing this part absolutely destroys me, to the say the least

Im happy that she definitely did know her family well, and she recognized