This blog post is dedicated to our dearest Roborovksi hamster, Mambo, who passed away on 14 January 2013 (Monday) sometime between 8am to 3pm. My regular readers and followers would have read about Mambo through my previous posts. I really don’t know how and where to begin. This post is the toughest to write so far.. As I’m typing this, Mambo had already left us for more than 24 hours but I can’t control my tears each time I think about him :'(

We will always remember Mambo’s cute and innocent-looking little face and his big round eyes which made our hearts melt every single time we looked at him. He had brought so much joy and laughter to everyone of us. We really love him and treat him as part of our family. My mum even prepared his breakfast before ours every morning. This post is written in remembrance of Mambo and his brother Jumbo, who passed away when he was 5 months old.. I have selected some photos taken within this period of 1 year 7 months from our DSLR, iPhone and iPad. Misterchewy and I even have a hashtag #mambotherobo for all photos of him on Instagram even though there are not many 🙁

On the night of 10 June 2011, two little hamsters about 3 weeks old arrived at our place. They were part of a sibling group given by my brother’s friend, Abel. I was away in Taiwan then. My mum and bro came up with the names ‘Mambo’ and ‘Jumbo’ for them. Jumbo was slightly bigger in size, and he was more timid as compared to Mambo.

We were quite amused that Mambo and Jumbo could sleep in the most awkward spaces.

We call this their playground. Mambo and Jumbo liked to sleep at this spot of the playground too. Both of them also passed away at this very spot.. :'(

This video was taken by misterchewy, when Mambo and Jumbo were about one month old. They were truly brothers. They ate together, ran the wheel together, slept next to each other. They did everything together and never fought. An unfortunate incident happened and Jumbo left when he was around 5 months old. We felt really sad, and at the same time, pitied Mambo. We could sense that Mambo was agitated when he could not find his brother and he ate very little for a couple of days. It must have been really tough on him. I feel very sorry for him, even till today..

Here are some of my favorite shots of Mambo, mostly taken by my mobile devices. He was awaken when I opened the cage. Hehehe.

Giving me the “Wassup???” LOL. 🙂

Every now and then, we would find him sleeping comfortably sandwiched between this cage and log and it never fails to amuse us.

Mambo was a light sleeper because every time we opened his cage, he would scurry out of his log or playground with half-closed sleepy eyes. He surprised us once when we found him curled up in a ball when we lifted up his log! Awwwww.. 🙂 But of course, he woke up about 5 seconds later with a blur look. Hahaha.

My bro liked to carry Mambo and sayang him on his head but our poor friend doesnt seem to enjoy it!

Here’s something else we found highly amusing! We wanted to let Mambo ‘see the world’ outside his home and let him out one evening but he scurried round and round his cage and finally climbed up his log and fell back in. Seems like home is still the best place to be!

On a few other occasions when we just wanted to kajiao him, we placed the log far away from his cage 😛

When Mambo was younger, he used to be afraid of us too. We found it hard to stroke him because he often ran off in fright. As he grew older, he got used to us 🙂

Sometimes Mambo could get quite lazy! Hahaha.

Clearly enjoying his frequent well-deserved back massages from us.

Apart from his favorite sunflower seeds, Mambo also loved eating his Vitamin C! We just had to wave it in front of him and he would come and snatch it away from our fingers.

We also introduced dried mealworms into his diet after my friends Shi Jie and Joslyn told me that their hamsters loveeeeee mealworms! Really glad that Mambo loved them too. We had also given him other special treats such as cheese cubes, donuts and pudding from the Pet Lovers stores.

Here’s a video of Mambo munching away happily!

I’m also glad that I bought the cottony blanket for him when I caught sight of it at Pet Lovers because Mambo clearly loved it very much! He was found snuggling in it most of the time :))

I think it was in October 2012, when we first found little traces of blood on Mambo’s bedding and he looked unwell. We weren’t sure what happened and attributed it to him eating too many sunflower seeds. He didn’t bleed anymore for a long time after that day.

This two videos were taken on 17 November 2012 evening. I was alone at home and spent some time playing with Mambo. Not sure what was he digging for!

We were always tickled by Mambo’s ‘kungfu moves’!

In 2011, we decorated Mambo’s cage during Christmas. I’m sorry that we didn’t manage to celebrate Christmas with Mambo at home last year because our house was undergoing some renovation work, which was also why I stayed at misterchewy’s place for about a month.

These are the last few photos taken just two weeks ago when I finally returned home. I was really glad to see my little treasure again :’)

Mambo looks pretty small right? Hehe..

Caught munching on his dried mealworms! This is one of my favorite photos of him 🙂

For the past few weeks and especially over the weekend, my parents noticed that Mambo’s appetite shrunk considerably and he was not as active as before. They said that we had to be mentally prepared. The last time I saw Mambo was on the 12th, Saturday evening because I was at misterchewy’s place on Sunday, but Mambo appeared normal to me. On Monday, my brother called me at around 2.50pm when I was at work and he said, “Jie.. Mambo is dead..” We spoke briefly before we hung up. I was calm but only for a few seconds. The tears started to well up in my eyes and I found it impossible to fight them back. I cried behind my computer at work for at least an hour and a half.

The husband met me at my workplace and we cabbed home. It was pouring very heavily on Monday evening and my heart felt really heavy while we were on our way home. I used to think that it was very difficult to take photos of Mambo because he was constantly running about but the truth is, it is the hardest when he was lying there motionless. My tears were rolling down my cheeks the whole time.

I kept asking myself these few questions:

1) Did Mambo know that he was going to leave us?
2) Did Mambo choose to die at the very same spot as his brother?
3) Was Mambo waiting for us to stroke him and bid him goodbye?
4) Was Mambo lonely when he left?

My only regret is that nobody was around to watch him take his very last breath and I also regretted not coming home earlier on Sunday. Mambo, I am really sorry but I sincerely hope that you felt loved by all of us. I really really miss you and will never forget your cute antics and random noises made throughout the day, especially in the morning when you were busy eating at your food bowl and at night when you were running on your wheel :'( My only consolation is that every single one of us in our family really doted on you and you were always on our minds. You will always be missed by us.

My mum stuffed his cotton blanket and his favorite food in a box.

My dad placed Mambo’s body in the box. I took quite a number of shots and wanted to make sure that I was satisfied because I didn’t wanna regret afterwards. It was very depressing for us to see Mambo go.. My mum finally sealed the box with a tape and at that moment, it really felt as though all the air had been sucked out of my lungs and I cried harder than before. My parents buried Mambo next to where they had buried Jumbo previously at a piece of vacant land along Sungei Tengah Road. We know that Mambo and Jumbo will be reunited in Hammie Heaven. Hope they become good friends with Coconut, Dodo, Mimi, Rei-Rei, Snowy, Sleepy and Milo too (thank you ahpoohbear and bubble_jen for comforting me)!

Mambo lived to about 21 months. In our hearts, he is irreplaceable. We love you Mambo and we hope that you are forever happy and contented in Hammie Heaven. :’)

Messages from Grandpa Ben, Grandma Christine, Daddy Bertrand and Daddy-in-law Chewy:

Mambo, you are dearly missed and fondly remembered by us.
– Grandpa Ben

It is painful to see that you are gone…..You have brought joy n laughter to our family. Mambo, you will stay in our hearts forever…….. Rest in Peace.
– Grandma Christine

Hi Mambo, many will say that hamsters are just small pets that are cute to keep. To me, you and Jumbo nothing like pets; more like family members to us. During my time in NS, you made me forget all my problems and worries. When I was preparing for exams, having you around made me less stressed with my studies. I will miss the times you bit my finger and ran away after that. I will also remember and miss how you showed those big eyes of yours, wanting more mealworms and sunflower seeds. I will miss how you ran to the sand bath to clean yourself after Grandpa Ben or me played with you. I will miss how you ate everything from the food bowl and hid the food remnants under the bedding, laying them out nicely. I will miss the times you ki siao and scratched around the cage wildly. I will miss you and Jumbo very very much. Grandma Christine cannot stop crying whenever she sees the empty cage now. You have brought so much joy to our family and everyone miss you dearly. Mambo, I hope you will get to meet Jumbo in Hammy Heaven and hope you will enjoy a happy afterlife. You stupid boy, I will not forget you and Jumbo not as my pets, but as my sons. Farewell son…
– Daddy Bertrand

Dear Mambo, although you are mischievous at times, you are always very cute to me. I have always loved to look at you and stroke your fur. I will always remember that bite that you gave me. Now that you are gone for good, I really want to tell you that I miss you, and I will continue to miss you in the future.. Take care and have fun in your little hammie heaven with Jumbo :')
– Daddy-in-law Chewy