First Mate Harriet

Charlie is Slow Coach’s second mate. Her first mate, Harriet passed away when she was 3 years old.

Slow Coach is very careful when it comes to food. She was such a picky eater. She usually takes her time to smell what is given to her before she eats it. Slow Coach loves meat such as raw sushi or anything that’s fishy but doesn’t flick an eye for vegetables. The day when she really does take a bite on the greens, it means they are very fresh and sweet. She would make a very good quality controller. Hehe!

Harriet, on the other hand was a fast and impulsive eater. She would gobble up whatever that was offered to her within seconds. That was why she was much larger than Slow Coach though they are the same age. It was more fun watching Harriet eating than Slow Coach who suspected everything given to her was laced with poison.

My sis handed me down her pet hamsters one day after she received them as birthday present. The idea of feeding and cleaning the two cute hamsters everyday for the rest of their lives (which doesn’t exceed two years, really) didn’t entice her at all.

Now, what has the two hamsters got to do with a tortoise’s death? Well….. the hamsters killed Harriet ~ indirectly.

The hamsters’ cage was put on top of a coffee table while the tortoises’ plastic tank was on the floor next to the coffee table. The tortoises grew up watching TV from their transparent tank. Maybe that explains their above average IQ (based on tortoise’s standard)? Anyway, the hamsters love to burrow themselves in the wood shavings. One fine day, they decided to kick up a notch their digging power which sent the wood shavings flying all over the places. I found Harriet very quiet that day & had lost her appetite. Poor Harriet had mistaken the wood shaving for food and one thing led to another. She passed away the next day.

Though it was a short three years but Harriet had lived her little life to the fullest. She had enjoyed lot’s of delicious food, chased baby frogs with Slow Coach, climbed up the chicken fence used for our kitchen grill door (to prevent the tortoises from going out of the house), swam in the gold fish tank (and of course chased the fish), dived into the wash basin, followed me (in their little travel tank) out dating with my now husband and lot’s of other silly things that we had done together.

I hope she is having fun on pet’s heaven now. We miss you, Harriet.