Meet Speedy--:

I have a  pet  hamster. Her name is Speedy. My hamster is a small rodent with beady black eyes. She has long golden fur and some times when she eats carrots her fur turns to a carroty colour. She is about one year and one month old. We got her on my birthday so as I am now nine and she is one. I got her from my friend Charlie in England for a birthday present. We moved to Tramore from England late last year. The family helped to decide her name, but my Mum and I decided to get a hamster as a pet. She eats dried hamster food that contains vitamin C and minerals. She also likes cabbage, cucumber and carrots, especially if you hide them around her cage. She drinks water from a special container in her cage. It is important to have fresh clean water for a hamster at all times. Her food costs a lot of money. It costs about  £1.25p for a special bag of ‘hamster food’, which we have to buy in a pet shop in Waterford. I usually feed her in the evening before bed except if I am away from home. When this happens I ask someone else to do the job for me. She exercises every night on her wheel and sleep’s in her little house with tissue paper in it by day.I have her in my Nans at the moment as we are in a rented house at present. I would not keep her ina bed room as all the noise she would make on her wheel at night would keep us awake. Sometimes she nibbles clothes if we leave them too near her cage. This drives my Mum mad.

Once a really funny thing happened. Speedy, nibbled the back of my Dad’s shirt, and as a result he was late for work.  He had to go and buy a new one, before he could turn up for work which was inconvenient as we kived a long way from a shop which sold shirts. My Dad said some nice things abour Speedy, which I won,t repeat here. I have trained her not to scrape at metal bars in her cage. She has quite good habits and she is friendly enough. Sometimes she nibbles my fingers. She has never been to the vets’ before, as she is quite healthy. If we go away on a holidays we ask a friend to look after her. Once my sister Amy left the cage door open, and Speedy escaped behind the radiator. We put her cage there with some food and she still didn’t come back, so we put a ruler down the hole so that she could climb up.

                             Speedy enjoys eating her food.

My Mum Mary brought a mouse trap but it is a special one that did not harm my hamster. Finally , we caught her and she was not harmed. The good thing about hamsters is that they like to live on their own,so they don’t fight. If I lost her I would be very sad and distressed, as she is my first pet. I have had other pets of my own and there have been other family pets. A hamster is a good pet for me, as she sleeps when I am at school and she plays with me when I am at home. The vet that came to the school was very helpful. I learnt a lot from her. It was good that she brought in real pets for us to touch and hold.

Adam Schneider
Third Class