Wednesday, November 12, 2008 ~ Another Adventure here in Thailand! Monday night Timmy came in and said that he thought Boxer (his 'boy' hamster) had a baby (miraculous conception) and was eating it. I went in and checked it out and it sure looked like a little baby hamster was inside his mouth - but it wasn't, it was like some sort of growth that was attached inside his mouth to his cheek. So after Timmy went to school Tuesday morning, Billy and I took Boxer to the Pet Store. She had no clue what it was but told us to take him to the Vet - we just asked if maybe she could just put Boxer to sleep - she looked horrified and said he needed to see the Vet. Soooooo, Billy and I took Boxer to the Hospital and signed in (hindsight we should have used an anonymous name and number); they took Boxer back and then a few minutes later invited us to join the Doctor. He had no idea what it was, other than it was some sort of tumor that needed to be removed. He took another 5 minutes trying to determine the sex of Boxer. SIDE NOTE: Over the last year we've had a number of Hamsters and we never could figure out the sex of any of them. We started with just two and after the numbers jumped from 2 to 7 to 13 in just a couple weeks we weren’t sure if we started with a boy and a girl or if we bought 2 girls that were both pregnant. We kept separating the hamsters and ended up having 5 cages and 21 hamsters. Finally Timmy had separated Boxer away from everyone else and he remained his favorite. After a couple months we gave all the others away (mostly to the pet store) and Timmy just took care of Boxer.
Well, according to the Vet it turns out that Boxer should be called Boxett, as he is not a boy but a girl after all (explains a few things)! So after this discovery the Vet told us that he would need to get a consultation, and then if the Surgeon (yeah, I know, SURGEON) needed to operate they would then send the mass to the Lab and determine if it was malignant or benign and proceed from there. We said if it is malignant will they put her to sleep? They hemmed and hawed for awhile and said 'they would see'. We asked how much it would cost for this operation and he said he would need some time to talk to everyone involved and let me know in 5 minutes. I then boldly asked if he would mind just putting Boxer to sleep ... now? He said, "No, we can not do that." I asked, "Why not?" He said, "Because I don’t agree with you." - Yes, it is true that most of the Thai's are Buddhist and even if a dog were hit by a car and was suffering they would not put the dog down. I think that they somehow think this would be active euthanasia which is condemned by the Buddhist. Anyhooo, they did all the consulting and then told us it would be around 2000Baht - this is about 60 US Dollars - FOR A HAMSTER!! What were our choices? My neighbor offered to throw it off her 16th floor balcony into the lake below, another one suggested we take it across the road where a new little batch of kittens had been born, and of course the easiest solution would be to inject it with a large does of insulin. But being the good parents that we are we told the Vet to go ahead and do all they could to "Save" our little Boxer! Actually we just want them to put her to sleep and we are hoping that the surgery is an easy out - we can't take her back with us to the states in December and will anyone really love her as much as Timmy has all these months? AND on top of that ... what IS the life expectancy of a Hamster?? Two or three years MAX? - She has already had the best year of her life!
Last night after we got home the Surgeon (very personal and one on one service) called and explained that she would be the one to do the surgery and that there might be complications and they would keep Boxer overnight so that she would have some undisturbed recovery time and they could keep an eye on her. I told her that I had full confidence in her and that I would be by tomorrow to pick her up. We hung up and a few minutes later she called back very distressed - I thought perhaps Boxer had keeled over (no such luck), she explained that I hadn’t signed the consent forms and could I come down and do that now???? Ummmmm . . . "NO" - I told her that I had already given my permission and that I would just as well put the little creature out of her misery and put her to sleep right now, so whatever the outcome I would not sue her and I would trust that she would do a good job. I told her to please just take care of it and I would come in and pay and sign the papers tomorrow morning! Wednesday - I will go and pick her up today at ten - I am sure even if she didn’t make it through the surgery they don’t want to tell me until after I pay the money and sign the consent form.
Well, I am back from the Vet so I thought I would finish the story since I know you must be in suspense waiting to see what happened! I went down and, low and behold, they bring our little Boxer out to me. She looks great and much better than before. She is a little puffy on her right check, but there is nothing hanging out of her mouth. The Surgeon explained that sometimes food gets stored in their cheek pouch and it stays there too long and somehow the skin manages to detach from the cheek and then the hamster try's to chew it off. So they just snipped it and Boxer has 4 tiny stitches - how cute is that?? The Surgeon is a sweet little Thai gal and she asked if I would like to give her Boxer when we move? (I know she was worried that we would still somehow manage to put Boxer to sleep). I was like, "Yeah, do you want her now????" - then I realized that I better let Timmy keep her for a couple more weeks so he can say goodbye properly to her (and I can get some pictures for his scrapbook - I somehow did not take any pictures over these 6 or 7 months of Boxer's life - how in the world did that happen??)
Anyhoooo, the receptionist hands me the bill, Are you ready for this?????? 3,688.61 Baht that is exactly $105.31 this for a HAMSTER - what we do for our children - although even Timmy was thinking that $60 was a bit ridicules to pay for Boxer. Oh well, my life was getting a bit boring over here, so this was just one more good story to have from our stay in Thailand.
Did I mention that this little fellow, I mean 'gal', can scale the top of her cage traveling from one side all the way across to the other, hand over hand with her legs dangling down below? - A very talented one at that!!
(see above video for preview).
UPDATE: Now I am off this morning (Thursday, November 13, 2008)
to take Boxer back to the Surgeon to give Boxer to her. We said our goodbyes
(and most importantly we got our pictures) and spared one more little
creature on this earth from disaster!!!!!
