My second piece in my Rainbow Bridge collection, which is a series tributed to my pets who have passed.

This is Solo. He was my Long Haired Syrian Hamster who passed away 6/19/19. He was approximately 1 and a half years old.

Unlike most of my pets, who came from either a pet store or a breeder, Solo was actually found on Craigslist. Shortly after Maple (another past hammy) passed away, I thought it would be a good opportunity to save a life by adopting since it was December, which is when many people tend to get rid of pets to make room for new ones. I browsed around for a bit an came across a CL ad about a local pet rescue that was shutting down and was trying to re home all the animals asap. The rescue appeared to be a family who's heart was in the right place but they got overwhelmed with the huge amount of pets people dumped on them. They had a ton of degus, rats, parrots, rabbits, guinea pigs, and hamsters. They told me they had 5 hamsters available. I asked them which one was the tamest and they showed me a pic of Solo in a two-level CritterTrail cage. I arranged to meet them halfway to pick him up a few days later. The people were very nice and told me that I could contact them if I had any questions. I did ask them where/how they got him. All they told me was that he came from some pet shop in Pace, FL that specialized in birds. It wasn't clear why he was surrendered. Either way, I'm glad I got him! He's been an extremely sweet hamster since day one. He's never bitten me and didn't mind being held. He also had the softest, longest fur I've ever seen on a hamster. It was like petting a little cloud :P. Unlike my previous hamster, he was a lot calmer. This was most likely due to his age (he was 1 year when I got him) and plus male hamsters are usually more chill in general than females. For the six months I've had him, he's been in great health, but a few days before he passed away he declined very quickly. He lost weight, started gasping, and refused to eat. I tried everything to help him but it was almost as if he just... completely gave up. To this day I still don't know what happened, although he could have had an age-related complication such as a stroke. Either way, I'm glad we got to spend time together, even though it was a little shorter than expected. He was definitely the best hamster I've ever had and has inspired me to think adoption first. I miss you fuzzy buddy. ❤️