Zombie Hamster

For children having a pet serves two main purposes. The first is teaching that child to care for and about another living creature and its needs. It teaches children to think about others and be aware of the needs of others. The second purpose is to teach about death. A child learns that everything dies and that this is sad and permanent.

My children have had a lot of experience with this, we have a pet cemetery in our back yard full of beloved cats, hamsters, and even a hedgehog. They know that they must take care of their pets or they will die, they also know that no matter what they do these pets will die eventually, as will everything else. It is sad but they are aware of how precious life is, a good thing.

So yesterday when we came down stairs and saw that one of the hamster's balls was open on the floor, and the cat was down there, we figured death had come again to our happy little friends. We found the hamster, it wasn't moving, its eyes were closed as it laid on its side in front of the stalking cat. It was the hamster of my littlest and she started to cry and her big sister hugged her and went to get some paper towels to wrap it up in.

I stared at it, sad for my baby girl more than the animal itself, and saw it move, just the very slightest breathing. I almost didn't say anything to the girls, i was sure it was well on its way to dead so there was no reason to give them hope that it wouldn't be dead any minute. But i picked it up and it opened its little eyes. I told the girls it was alive, barely and would probably not make it much longer.

I let my little ones say goodbye to the thing and put it in its cage to die, i thought. An hour later the thing is up and around, eating and drinking and burrowing into its bedding! So I am very thankful i hadn't tossed it anyway, figuring death was too close to save and no reason to prolong the sadness of the children by letting it die twice. But it was so close to dead i have to wonder...

Is this a Zombie Hamster? I will watch it very carefully to see if it seems to grow extra fangs and a thirst for brains.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Do you ever have those weeks where it seems that no matter how much you get done, you’re not moving forward?

That’s been my life for the past week. Since last Wednesday I have produced an amazing 29,000 plus words but nothing, and I repeat, nothing is done yet. As I sit here tonight staring at the screen and writing this blog, I wonder just how can that be.

Well, maybe it’s the fact that I have 5, again repeat, 5 works in progess that I am writing on. They range from contemporary to paranormal to science fiction. I love not being boxed in by one genre nor one book. This way, if I get bored with something I can move on to the next. Note that bored can mean truly bored, don’t know where the plot is going, just don’t want to write that damn scene, or I’m stuck and don’t know how to get out of the plot box I seem to be in. However, it can lead to high word counts with absolutely nothing being completed because I’m working a little bit on all of them. Duh.

What is strange about this whole thing is I’m going exactly as planned. I’m maintaining my minimum daily writing word count of 3500 with many days exceeding the count. I’ve even had my family days off as well as the one allergy day where I felt like crap and all I wanted to do was sleep. But over all I feel great about the progress I’m making just not how long it seems to be taking me.

A while ago, I had written about the fact that it seems as we get older time flies. Why doesn’t it fly here? Why doesn’t the word count pile up even more and things get completed? Why, why, why, why, why. Sigh.

I guess, I’m just having one of those days where it feels as if I’m a hamster on a wheel. It seems as if I’m going around and around and around, doing what I’m supposed to be doing and going nowhere. One step forward, two steps back. Sounds like that song which has the line ‘we’re on the road to nowhere’ and it makes me laugh in a weird, cynical kinda way.

Add to that I’m hyperfocusing on my big writer’s butt plus my lack of weight loss and you can see what type of week it’s been. Not bad, not good…just different and sort of depressing…the kind you don’t know if you’re supposed to laugh or cry.

I’m sure you’ve all been there in one way or another. Whether it be in your writing or in something from your personal life. Share with me just how you got out of your funky mood and I’ll put you in my May drawing for a copy of my next release.

Till next week…

Lynn