Once there was a little girl who had two hamsters, Tootsie and Sucker. Her parents told her she could have her hamsters as long as she took care of them. She did a great job playing with them, feeding them, making sure they had water and cleaning out their cage. Sadly one day about a year later one of the hamsters passed away after eating some play dough. Shortly after that the little girl got busy with school, piano and friends. Her mom started having to feed the remaining hamster, clean out its cage and talk to it so it wouldn't be lonely. One day while cleaning out the hamster cage the kind mother remembered the deal and told the little girl that if she didn't start taking care of the hamster again it would be gone. Apparently the little girl didn't think the mom was serious. After all everyone loved the hamster even if was starving and stinky. Well one day the mom got brave and sold the hamster to a little boy who was excited to take care of it. Several days went by when suddenly the moment the mother had been dreading came. The little girl asked where her hamster was. The kind mother told her the truth, but suddenly the mother was not kind anymore. Now she was the meanest most cold hearted mother in the world. The little girl cried a lot and moped around missing her hamster for days. The mother cried too and had some sleepless nights. The mother felt really horrible especially when the girls teacher called to see why the girl had been so sad at school. Just when the mother was about to call the boy who now owned the hamster to see if she could buy it back, the handsome dad came to the rescue. He stepped into the middle of the drama promising both the mother and the girl that this was a good learning experience. He explained once again why the hamster was gone and what we could do to learn from it. He also promised the girl that if she kept up on her other responsibilities during the winter she could try again with a new pet in the spring. It still hurt for awhile but the little girl started looking forward the getting a bunny in the spring. Then one day the girl said "Mom I can't believe you gave my hamster away!" The mom said, "Neither can I!" Then they both laughed.
Oh the hard lessons we learn!
