ONE LAST SHENANIGAN

so we laid Walter Warkentin to rest today.

walter's go-green coffin
handcrafted by
graham

walter warkentin's funeral was attended by several dignitaries.
albert einstein officiated
and
the crows were there to pay their respects.



ahh, yes, the sting of death was more so on us during our long, 8-hour good-bye. that was a grief- stricken ordeal but i suppose we did most of our grieving during that. so the burial itself wasn't as traumatic as i anticipated or expected. of course, there were tears (just the girls cried, the boys would like to point out)


after walter's funeral we spent the afternoon cleaning his condo, vacuuming/packing up his estate and trying to figure out where he hid his last will and testament.

wonder if he left me anything? don't laugh! i wouldn't be surprised, after all, he was always pulling some sort of shenanigan.

thanks to those of you who have been gracious and generous with your messages of condolence. i'm grateful folks understand my silly sorrow. asinine how attached i became to that rodent! really! truth be told, i just about broke out into a brokenhearted rendition of "jesus loves you" as walter was gasping his last breaths.

but you know, that little guy was special to me and he had such personality!
he lived life to the fullest - his tummy and his cheeks were always full!

he was definitely a portly little dude!

yes, live life! that he did! when he wasn't busy keeping me company on my convalescing couch, he could be found watching dr phil, cruising in his hot rod, consuming copious amounts of food and then trying to burn off the calories by going for walks...

had to keep that little guy on a tight leash!

he was busy socializing and eating right up until the week before his death.



even santa couldn't resist him nor sentence him to the naughty list - a spot he deservedly earned because of all his escape shenanigans.


walter had some pretty famous friends. over the holidays, he was invited to hang out with barbie in her dream house. he was certainly impressed with her digs, her food, and well, with barbie herself.



his visit was abruptly ended when she caught him trying to look up her skirt!




even though he waddled and wobbled and huffed and puffed as he chased her around, he was still pretty spry for such an old guy! i bet he is somehow related to jack nicholson. probably a distant relative, 10x removed or something. given that he was still up to such shenanigans, it's hard to believe he passed away a mere 4 days later.

barbie, opportunist that she is, wasted no time at all in moving into the lot that had housed walter's pad. i suppose it's her pay back in response to having a stodgy old hamster trying to put his moves on her. barbie immediately installed air fresheners in her new location as there is a slight barn yard odor still lingering in the air. ah, hamster coo mist, i suppose walter is having one last laugh at barbie's expense.


at any rate, we miss the little guy....but we're coping with the loss. as one of my friends put it,

"walter warkentin was the most loved, most well-known hamster ever"

yes, we wholeheartedly agree!

farewell, little buddy...zoom off into the sunset!

we will always affectionately hold warm, fond memories of our famous fur-ball (not hair-ball) in our hearts..
but as the story goes,
life moves on...
we miss him,
we shed a tear,
we reminisce
and
we chuckle about his last shenanigan