This post could also be called “Regrets, I’ve had a few”… as Frank Sinatra says in the classic “My Way”

Sorry students, I just have to come out and say it, Ash is dead.

I am so sorry to tell you this way, but I just keep thinking all these words in my head so I thought the best thing to do was to write them down.

Ash has been a family and class pet, for 6 months.  He survived ferocious and scary attacks from wild animals, extensive surgery, nights in the jungle of 5KP, being eaten by a super-sized yellow sticky note pad, and being trapped behind a giant green fortress, (not to mention being the husband of bossy Shadow!) …but unfortunately, his time was up this morning and he has died.

That stupid stupid green cage, that door, I should have fixed it, I should not have kept him in that cage, I should have taken him out of the bathroom, I should have let out Mimi’s bath water earlier… Ash was found, unfortunately by Hannah, at 7 am this morning, cold in the bath. We are all so sad, Hannah is a mess, Mimi doesn’t really care too much, and even Simon knows how special Ash was. I just feel so full of regret, so full of ‘If Only…’

Ash was special, other students and teachers stopped by to see him, to give him a pat or say hello. His fur had looked so beautiful since we came back from the Winter Break, so white, so soft. Oh, and did I mention he’d lost a little weight? Only a little mind you, he was still the fattest hamster we had seen, but that made him so cuddly and easy to handle. He was so friendly.

Oh students, I know life goes on, I know it is not the end of the world, I know he was “just a hamster” but he had become something more to the students of 5KP and to our family. He was a bit of an icon, a tough little guy, a survivor, and he will be missed very much, our room won’t be the same without him. I am so sorry that he is not with us anymore. I will really miss him.

RIP Ash…