My first hamster

My first hamster was a female Russian Campbell dwarf hamster. I named her Nugget because she was about the same size and color of a little chicken nugget. I always called her my “hamster Nugget” because she is like a little chicken nugget, except she is a hamster. I got her right after fifth grade ended because my fifth grade class got a winter white dwarf hamster as a class pet. This class pet was my first experience with a hamster and it was what started my love and fascination for rodents. I was so happy when my mom surprised me by telling me that I could get a hamster of my own because I was so good about taking care of the class pet.
My first mistake with taking care of Nugget was that I bought her at a pet store instead of adopting her. This doesn’t apply to all pet sores, but most of them keep their small pets in very bad conditions before even putting them on sale. When I saw Nugget in her cage at the store, she had a wire wheel, minimal bedding, and no chews. It was so sad. I wanted to take her away from that place so she was the one that I chose. That was before I learned that once you buy a pet from a pet store, the store just breeds a new one. You aren’t rescuing anybody. From then on, I planned to adopt hamsters instead of buying them from a store.
When I got her, Nugget was a very hyper hamster. She had a problem with her heart that caused her to act differently than most hamsters. She was hardly ever sleeping and whenever she was awake, she was running laps around the cage and on the wheel. She would drink and abnormally large amount of water daily and she was quite small for a hamster of her species. She was also cage aggressive and she was very bitey. She would nibble on my finger whenever I held her and when I put my hand in her cage, she would come after it like it would be his last minute. She never became fully tame before she passed.
Nugget ended up dying from this heart issue at only two months of living with me. She wasn’t even fully grown when I got her so she didn’t have a very long life. I am still glad I got her though, because at least she didn’t have to spend the rest of her life at the store.
One morning, I woke up to check on Nugget. I went over to her cage and she was laying on her side. She was was moving her legs as if she was running. I didn’t know what was wrong so I gently picked her up, and as she was doing the same thing in my hand, I just stroked her back softly. After she stopped running, I asked my parents what was going on. They thought she was having a heart attack. I just kept stroking her until she stopped breathing. We buried Nugget in a special spot in our backyard.
Nugget was my first hamster and she taught me many things. She didn’t have a very long life, but she had a happy one and she was loved.