Be My Valentine?

Happy Valentine's Day!  I love my fluffy little hamsters!  And even though they aren't all that great at doing photo shoots, I love taking pictures of them.  I have consented to the fact that I won't get any pictures at all unless there is food involved.  And even with the food, they still might decide they suddenly aren't interested in food.  

Nenya surprised me the most during this because she normally grabs any food around as quickly as possible and runs everywhere.  Her nickname is fatty, but on this day, she barely touched any food.  Thankfully, she held still long enough to get pictures.  In fact, I got through her pictures faster than any of the others because she did exactly what I wanted on the first try.  She's such a good ham when she wants to be.  :)

Narya was more interested in the food than I expected.  She rarely shows interest in food outside her cage and even in her cage.  She just doesn't have the food drive the way most hams do.  That might explain why she stays so tiny.  Haha!  I was happy that she at least tasted the foods I offered.  She took the whole piece of spinach and had a nibble of the strawberry.  She's so sweet.  I have the most pictures of her from this photo shoot because she is the easiest to photograph, and I can't stop myself from getting all the cute pictures!

Vilya was probably the hardest to get pictures of.  He just doesn't hold still.  He is a curious and confident guy so he likes to explore.  He also didn't pause very long for all the food like I had hoped because he was more interested in looking for the ladies, so most of the pictures I have of him are slightly out of focus.  Oh well.  He is still so adorable!  :)

Blue Bowl

These are some more pictures from a couple weeks ago.  Being reminded how cute my hamsters are certainly motivates me to take and share more pictures of them with you all.  Aren't my little hams adorable??!!??

Narya continues to prove that she is the best at posing.  I mean, of the three, she is definitely the easiest to get good pictures of.  Isn't she so precious?!

Oh Vilya.  Such a stud.  Seriously, just look at that smug little smirk on his face.  

Vilya's Birthday Celebration!

Are you ready to hear the secret??  So I don't actually know when Vilya's birthday is, but I have declared today, January 29, 2018 to be his first birthday!  :)  Of course this means that he gets extra spoiled today.  This also means the other hams get to join the celebration by being extra spoiled too.  :)

Seeing Vilya in his party hat as the birthday boy reminds me so much of Tarcil!  Vilya was so chill and happy to eat all the yummy food I had for him.  And of course by eat, I mean shove it all in his cheeks.  Hahaha!  He really enjoyed being spoiled for his birthday.  I do wish that Penny could have joined the celebration.  She was always so happy to see the hams and was so gentle with each of them.  She truly was a special cat who is dearly missed.

Doens't Nenya look so dreamy??!!?  So to give you all full disclosure, I took exactly two pictures of Nenya, and this is the only one worth sharing.  Nenya was way more interested in exploring than eating food, so she didn't stay at the table for long.  She enjoyed her yummy treat when she went back into her home.  :)

Oh Narya.  So here's the story of Narya's first experience at a party.  Narya saw the food and instantly picked up as much food as she could with her tiny paws with the intention of shoving it all into her cheeks.  Well, I don't think she anticipated how much food there was or the weight of all that food, because she quickly toppled off the chair.  However, she held onto the food through the fall and continued with her plan to stuff her face.  She was the only ham to sniff the flowers which I thought was so sweet.  :)

Couch Time

I have been really missing my pretty kitty Penny and haven't been feeling like doing anything.  Finally I got the urge to take pictures again.  I needed something to feel good about and wanted pictures that could make me happy.  I did something I haven't done before with the hamsters and grabbed my flash since it was late evening when this urge came over me.  I normally take pictures during the day to use the bright natural light from windows.  Well, I have to say, I am so glad that I did this despite how I was initially feeling.  I love these hamsters so much and even though none of them are natural models and posers like Tarcil was, I am quite happy with the pictures I got.  This is exactly what I needed.  I can't wait to print some and get them on my board of favorite pictures.

Nenya wasn't so sure about the flash, but she definitely wasn't scared of it!  I am so happy with how well she held still so I could get pictures to show you all how adorable she is!

Narya was interested in wandering around and taking her time to look and smell everything.  She's so tiny and cute!

Vilya was exploring everything!  He was so excited to climb around and see every inch of this couch.  He made a point to pause every now and then so I could grab a picture.  

My Pretty Penny

I've had a lot of trouble bringing myself to do this, and I still don't know what to say, but my pretty kitty Penny passed away on Sunday night. We noticed about a month ago she wasn't eating as much, and then we noticed that she lost a lot of weight, so we took her to the vet and after doing an ultrasound, they found masses (likely cancer) in both kidneys, liver, and intestines. We took her home and loved her and kept her comfy until the end. She was about 7 years old, but I feel like I have had her my whole life as she is the last of a long line of cats that I grew up with. I choose her to keep because she was so much like my dear Tigger. She was a sweetheart that hated having her picture taken, but I did it anyways. She had a love/hate relationship with Beren, but she always liked the hamsters, especially Tarcil.

This first college is some of my favorite pictures I have of Penny.

This shows Penny's relationship with the other pets.

She was so chill and such a sweetheart.

The last three pictures I took of her.  In the top left, you can see where she was shaved for her ultrasound.

Stockings

Nenya seemed to really like this stocking, but she really wanted to explore the whole thing.  I made her stay up by the opening so that she wouldn't make the stocking her home.  She settled down on her urge to explore and instead happily cleaned herself.  :)

Narya sat exactly where I set her and basically didn't move.  She seemed to like the view.  She really is a very photogenic little ham!  :)

Vilya was sure he just missed seeing a lady and was determined to find her.   He thought if he licked the whole area, maybe she would reappear for him.  Hahaha!  :)

Beautiful Blues

These are more flowers from the flower arrangement we got from the funeral home.  I LOVE the way they mixed a variety of beautiful blue flowers in with so many pretty white ones.  The whole arrangement was stunning!  Nenya almost looks like just another flower!  Her red eyes and pink nose are about all that stands out!  She's so pretty though!

Narya has such nice contrasting colors against these flowers!  She is clearly the best at posing for pictures!  She just sits still and looks right at me when I talk to her!  :)

Vilya was the only one that seemed interested in the flowers themselves.  He was actually smelling all of them.  :)