Following the story on the Austrian incest case, I have wonder HOW the wife of the father could not have known what was going on in the cellar below her home, where her daughter and three children were being kept. Elizabeth had been in labour six times during those twenty-four years in captivity, raised six children, yet no one above heard anything?!?!?!

I can't even imagine what Elizabeth and her children must have gone through. When her eldest daughter became seriously ill, and her father "allowed" her to be taken to hospital, that is the first time in their lives that those children had ever seen daylight.

Every day on the news, we hear appalling stories of war and suffering. Hopefully, just this once, the plight of Elizabeth and her family will have a happy ending.

I was just thinking (dangerous habit, I know), I still haven't introduced my Chinese dwarfs Theo and Sky to the world. I'm afraid that getting Sir D settled in has resulted in a temporary lull in the attention my other boys have got. Theo and Sky are brothers, aged around 15 weeks (you can never be sure of the exact age when it comes to pet shop hams). They live in a nice sized cage, with 2 hours and 2 wheels. They both run from hand to hand, and explore arms and shoulders. I wanted to say they enjoyed doing these things, but I don't know if they do!

This is Sky. Sky is bit of a juvenile delinquent by all accounts. It seems one of his favourite pass times is to make Theo squeek.



This is Theo. Theo has a little fluffy piece of white fluff on his forehead. This makes it easy for me to tell them apart, as Sky doesn't have the fluffy bit. Appologies for the poor picture quality, Chinese hams move very fast!

Bought Sir D a lovely new cage yesterday from Wilko's. Was amazed it only cost 20 quid!! It's on 3 levels, with tubes connecting levels. Sir D soon got to work exploring - he now has a great love for climbing, much to my dismay. He monkey bars it across the wires across the top of the cage and uses his mouth to grip onto the side wires so he can get down. Apart from when he misses.....

He slept (and I use that term loosely) in my room last night. All i heard all night was *scratch* *scratch* *scratch* *scratch* *scratch* *THUD*, as he fell. This morning, I noticed he had moved all of his bedding to the second level of his cage. I'm assuming to help cushion his falls.

Well, at least now he is out of that tiny Habitrail cage.

He has arrived!!!

Gus brought him round about 12 O'Clock, and got him out. He is gorgeous!! Straight on my hand, up my arm, and onto my shoulder. It struck me how much heavier he is than my two Chinese dwarfs. He is as big as my hand - four times the size of Sky and Theo!! All white, with a lovely light cream colour at the top of his shoulders and the top around his head.

Sir Dandelion is now asleep. I gave him some extra shredded toilet tissue for his bedding, and he spent a bit of time re-arranging it until it was just right, then he laid down on his side and closed his eyes. I watched him through the plastic, and he was facing me with his little paws drawn up to his chest. Adorable!!!

It's a lovely stewfor dinner today, so I gave all my hammies a little piece of carrot and swede each in their bowls to munch when they wake up this evening.

Will be getting him a lovely new cage soon, as the one he came in was tiny. It's one of those stupid Habitrail playground's - the plastic things only really fun for kids. He finds it a bit of a challenge leaving his bed to get into the main part of the cage because the tube connecting them is too small. I have my eye on a lovely huge cage on ebay, so here's hoping he won't have to live in the Habitrail for much longer.

I want to thank Gus for bringing him into my life. I want to thank Joe for rescuing from his previous owners and giving him a lovely Silent Spinner. Thanks guys, I promise he will be extremely well looked after, and thank you for entrusting me with him :-)

My New Obsession

Dear friends, I firmly believe I have gone hamsterifickly crazy. It seems for the past three months, my life has been filled with all things hamster (much to the annoyance of my dear dear other half). My obsession has grown to such an extent, that I am adopting THE most adorable, gorgeous little man EVER tomorrow. He shall hence forth be known as Sir Dandelion and he shall be lord and master of York. People shall bow to his every whim. I have a shopping trip planned for tomorrow to get him lots of goodies.

Exciting times indeed!

Yours

The not so grown up 29 year old but still brimming with excitement none-the-less

Bad Puppy

A few weeks ago (13th February I think), I bought the little darlings a hamster each. Little Chinese dwarfs. Theo and Captain Jack they came to be named. Six days later, Theo died. It was a very sad occasion, tears in abundance. I took the dead hammie and Captain Jack back to the pet shop where it was discovered that Theo had died of wet tail. After a lot of research, I've found that most breeders and owners agree that this is only a disease affecting Syrian hamsters. However, it was confirmed that poor Theo had contracted it. Amazing how quick it happened. At 1pm, he was fine; eating and drinking. Went to check on him at 4pm and he was stiff as a board. Poor soul.

So today, I go and get the replacements. The guy at the shop said they'd help me out with cash toward the taxi fair but I had a lift, so asked if I could take another hamster instead. They agreed.

They had five little boys in and these hammies like to be kept in groups, so I thought "if I take two, and someone else takes two, there's going to be a very lonely hammie left all on his own", hence why I asked for another.

Got them into their new home, which is in my bedroom at the moment so they can settle in OK and not have little fingers poking at them.

Probably won't be getting much sleep tonight.......

And the idiot of the year so far award goes to.....

An Australian man had a miracle escape when a train rolled over him as he slept between railway tracks, police said Friday.

The 20-year-old was having a snooze on the sleepers between the tracks when the train approached him in the early hours of Thursday morning at Port Augusta, in South Australia state, the said.

The driver spotted the man and tried to brake but the locomotive could not halt in time.

The train rolled over the man, who was lying in a slight dip, leaving him relatively unscathed, police said.

Local reports said he was believed to be drunk and train operator Freightlink said he was lucky to be alive.

"It was probably lucky he was lying in such a way that the train actually went over him, rather than across him," Freightlink general manager Tony Aldridge told The Australian newspaper, adding it was "not the best place" to take a nap.

"The normal process is people are not as fortunate as this man was," he was quoted as saying.

The man was taken to Port Augusta hospital, where a spokeswoman said he was treated for minor scrapes and bruising ahead of his expected release Friday afternoon.