Benny - Part II

When my son saw the footless hamster for the first time, he asked, "What are you going to call him, Stumpy?" ha-ha-ha When my husband saw the footless hamster for the first time, he asked, "What are you going to call him, Gimpy?" ha-ha-ha (Oooh, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree!) My daughter. . .she was not amused. When she went to bed that night, with the hamster settled on her desk, I asked, "What are you going to call him?" She told me she didn't know yet. I asked her again in the morning, and then in the afternoon and then after dinner . . . she didn't know yet. At bedtime that night, I asked her again, "What are you going to call him?" She whined, "Mooooooooooom, I don't know yet, a name is very important." Okay, okay, I'll leave you alone about it. The next day, she announced she had chosen a name - Benny. Benny, after my Uncle Benny who had recently died. It's funny that only now I see this metaphor. Uncle Benny spent the last 5 years of his life in a nursing home, unable to walk, unable to communicate more than a few mere words. We never thought of Uncle Benny as anything less than "whole" and we visited him often. Benny, the hamster that is, was nothing less than "whole" in my daughter's eyes, even though he had no back feet to use in the exercise wheel . . .


to be continued..............