"Mr Punkie"
Mr. Punkie was a happy little hamster. He ran in his wheel all the live long day, and slept in his warm little nest he made in the corner of his cage when he was tired.
When he was thirsty or hungry, he always had a fresh supply of cool water and the finest nutritionally enhanced rodent pellets money could buy.
One day, Rick, Mr. Punkie's owner, brought home some hamster friends for Mr. Punkie. Their names were Fluffy, Poof, and Bootsie."May we try your running wheel?" Fluffy asked.
“Sure you may try my wheel!" Mr. Punkie exclaimed. "But one at a time. I think my wheel is really swell, and Rick would be really sore with us if we were to break it."
The other hamsters instantly waddled to the wheel in excitement. "Yippieeeee!" Bootsie said. "I can't wait!"All three of them squeezed onto the wheel, and this made Mr. Punkie feel very uneasy. But they quickly got the wheel spinning, and it didn't appear to be unstable at all!
"Join in, Mr. Punkie!" exclaimed Poof, running short of breath. "It's real fun and we like you! We all really want you to help make it go FASTER! WEEEEEEEEEE!!!""I better not, that looks a little dangerous," Mr. Punkie said."Aw, come on, Punkie!" the others insisted. "It's really keen!"
"Well....." Mr. Punkie thought. It sure did look like fun. However, if the wheel was broken as a result of this, who knew when Rick would be able to fix it or buy a new one?
"Aw, gee; what the heck," Mr. Punkie said and walked towards the spinning wheel. It was squeaking louder as he approached, and he saw their little hamster footsies going at a million miles an hour. Jumping on this while it was moving so fast was going to be a challenge indeed!
"Jump Punkie! Jump!" Poof screamed. It looked like they were having soooo much fun!
Mr. Punkie took a deep breath and few steps back. He ran towards the spinning wheel which his three new friends were having the time of their lives on. Unfortunately, Mr. Punkie's head got caught in between the strip of metal on the side of the wheel which held it on its axel and the wheel stand, causing the wheel to come to a halt. The weight of all his friends exerted so much pressure on his poor little noggin that he was strangled to death.
"Oh no!" the others cried. They got off the wheel, sniffed poor Mr. Punkie's remains for a few minutes, and ate him.
The End
This story was inspired by my job at a pet store in high school. More often than not, I'd come in to feed the animals in the morning and find a half-eaten hamster in the cage and the other 6-7 hamsters laying around it with full bellies and content looks on their faces. There is a certain charm to the notion of cute, cuddly furry little rodents adored by little girls that eat each other's corpses. Also, crowded running wheel strangulation was a rather common means of accidental death amongst "Pets 4 U"'s hamster supply.
