Hammie, resident hamster

I used to think that Hammie might be a runaway, but I'm now suspecting that he may have been abandoned by a neighbor. After noticing the worrying rate at which Hammie was losing his fur, my parents took him to a vet. He's got a skin infection and is actually rather old. We now put some cream on him twice a day and feed him a pink liquid which he adores. He's looking rather scrawny and ugly, but we love him to bits. My parents treat him like a baby, making sure he has his medicine and always taking him out to play or run around in our breakfast terrace. They even crack sunflower seeds for him since he seems too weak to crack them on his own. My brother looks in on him even when he gets home late from work.

I'm not sure how long he can last, and it saddens me that I might not be able to see him again the next time I come home, which will May 2005 (December 2004 if I'm lucky). My father has already said we'll bury him in our garden since we're rather sentimental about the fact that fate brought him to our family. I'm still amazed how my brother found and rescued him.