VH1 Pickup Artist 2 Casting

That "thing" on my shoulder is my best friend Coco. She's a Russian dwarf hamster, the perfect size to hold in the palm of your hand. Her cage-mate Cream died last month of diabetes.

When I found her she was cold and limp but still breathing. I held her in my hand to keep her warm, and as she warmed up she seemed be be regaining awareness of where she was. I called the animal hospital's emergency number--it was almost 3am at the time--and they said the best thing to do was to bring her in. It costs $90 just to bring her in the door, and Cream only cost me $15 at the pet store to begin with, but fuck it, she's my little critter and I was going to do whatever I could. I got her little pet carrier ready, but because I wanted to keep her warm I decided to carry her there in my shirt pocket. But before I put on my shoes to leave, I realized that she wasn't breathing anymore.

And that's the night I called my mom at 3am crying about a rodent that she never liked anyway. I'm not sure what the people at Wal-Mart thought when I went in at 3:30 in the morning to buy a shovel. I buried Cream in the garden behind my apartment, underneath a tulip bulb. You can see it sprouting now. In another couple weeks there'll be a beautiful flower to remember my little rodent by. :)