the tale of bartlet and terminator

after a summer of deliberating the possibility of acquiring pets, which included a brief stint of looking after my boyfriend's cousin's hamster, hammond, during their transition from edinburgh to belfast, we finally took the plunge.

keith and i are the proud owners of two russian dwarf hamsters. when we purchased them, the pet-store girl informed us that they were male. we brought them home, made up their cozy bed, and named them bartlet and terminator. i chose bartlet, as i was going through (another) west wing phase. keith chose terminator, for reasons which remain unknown.

however, in the weeks that followed, terminator got very fat. i have taken to (affectionately) calling him fatty.

keith got scared that terminator was a she, and was pregnant.

and so followed a session that involved youtube videos of sexing, a clear ikea box held above our heads, and me trying to hold them still long enough for keith to see...

we think they're both girls. in any case, they're definitely the same.

so if they're girls, should their names be changed? i like 'poppy'...