Asleep on the Wheel

Small little Fuzz victory tonight. :)

At first, Fuzz wouldn't let me pet her. When I tried, she'd flip her body around (so fast you could barely see it happen!) so she could smell my fingers and figure out what the heck I was doing. Once she even squeaked at me to knock it off.

But she's used to it now. She'll let me pet her. She just continues whatever she's doing at the time--eating, grooming, whatever. She doesn't try to get away, so I don't think she minds it, but I'm not sure if she really likes it, exactly.

Tonight, she woke up and started running on her wheel. After a little while, she stopped and started grooming herself. I pet her back, for longer than I usually do. She kept grooming. Then all of a sudden she curled up in a ball and stopped moving.

This alarmed me a little bit. Hamsters are hyper little guys, who almost never stop moving. The only times Fuzz has come to a complete and total stop have been times that she was scared out of her mind.

Like when we took this picture with a flash camera. She was happily running around, trying to climb up my arms, and then the camera went off, and she stopped dead  and turned to stare at it.

So I stopped petting her and went away. When I walked by 5 minutes later, I saw she was still in a little ball, motionless on her wheel. At first, this FREAKED me out. But then I realized... she was asleep. She fell asleep while I was petting her.

That's got to be a good sign, right? It must have helped her to relax? And she was really tired, because she'd just gotten up for the night. Fuzz never sleeps out in the open. She'll sleep in one of her shelters, in the den attachment, in her attic, or sometimes underneath her wheel. But there she was, sleeping in the open. Hopefully this does mean that she's learning to trust me, and that she likes it when I pet her.