"Liquorice" and "Chocolate Chip"

We have two new family members. Elsa has been saving her money for a few months with one goal in mind -- "acquire a hamster."

I found her a good deal on a pair of young fellas. (The family trying to get rid of them made the mistake of buying a female hamster at the pet store. Suddenly they had many hamsters. NEVER buy a female hamster at the pet store.)

They are both solid black. They look like miniature little black bears.

This is Liquorice the hamster:


And this is Chocolate the hamster:
When we got home with them, and Adele saw that they were animals, she of course cried and dove behind Ryan in terror. She went nearly hysterical with fear, cried and begged us not to get them near her. It took us a while to coax her back into the room. After all, fear of animals (including flies) is in her blood!

Just kidding. Sorry Tiff, couldn't resist.

Actually, Adele squeeled with total delight and almost jumped out of Ryan's arms trying to get the hamster when Elsa held it up to show her. She was soooooo excited. Then she chased one around while it ran in the ball, and she giggled like crazy the whole time. We put one in a box and let her pet it and we had to hold her arms pack because she really wanted to pick it up. We had to insist on her ONLY petting it.

Then she sat and watched them play in the cage. I had to keep telling her "no" because she would put her fingers in the wires and try to get them that way. But hamsters will bite your finger tips if you offer them to them like that (they think anything you stick in their face is an offer of food.)

I suggested to Elsa that we name them Diet Coke and Dr. Pepper, but she just rolled her eyes at me. I guess since she paid, she can name them whatever she wants. But how cute would it have been to call them her Cola Bears???