I finally saw Up yesterday, and it was AMAZING!!!! Pixar never seems to dissappoint. How do they do it? We saw it at the only Drive-In theater left in the state, so that we could bring our dog, Ella. She was very well behaved the whole time.

Also, two nights ago, we watched Bolt. It was also really great, but I cried A LOT. Full out balling. It's not that it was a sad movie or anything (it was darker than I expected, though.) It was personal reasons, combined with lack of sleep, lack of Prozac, and, perhaps a little bit of PMS. (I don't usually blame PMS because my symptoms are never bad, and I don't like to perpetuate the idea that menstruation dominates women's lives.) The real problem for me was that the main characters were a dog, a cat, and a hamster. Just like Ella, Xander, and Diana.
( Cut contains spoilers for Bolt, along with mentions of animal abuse (my dog), abandonment (my cat), and death (my sister's late hamster). )

I guess I never mentioned it, but early on in April, my little sister, Gillian, got a hamster. She always wanted one, even though she knew they aren't the easiest pets to play with. She bought the hamster that she saw huddled in the cage corner, not getting her turn on the wheel, thinking that the other hamster's weren't letting her. We were at PetsMart (PetSmart?) for an appointment for Xander, because he had been throwing up a lot (and I cleaned it up almost every frakking time), and she saw the hamster, called my mom, and begged. She paid with her own money, and named her Diana, after the Roman Goddess of the Hunt, Moon, and Protector of Maidens. She thought Artemis sounded a bit too weird, and wanted to go with the more modern, human name Diana.

Gillian didn't realize that you're not suppose to play with a hamster immediately, so when we got home that's what she did. And I don't blame her, that thing was adorable. And Diana did seem to like Gillian, as much as a recently domesticated rodent can love a new human. Really.

A few weeks later, we had a little health scare with her. Gillian started freaking out when she saw symptoms of wet-tail disease in Diana, which is very serious and often fatal. Gillian felt incredibly guilty, blaming herself. We rushed her to the only vet around that would treat hamsters, but turns out it was only a mild, treatable infection.

Gillian was very responsible with giving Diana her medicine, but one day she didn't have time to and so my dad had to do it. If I remember correctly, Diana got out of her cage, with the cat nearby, so my dad panicked, grabbed Diana and held her tight. This of course terrified Diana and she bit my dad's finger deep and hard, my dad accidentally threw her. She survived all of this, but once she got back in her caged, she stayed in the wheel and was too scared to come out. From then on, my sister was too scared to play with Diana anymore. She tried giving her the medicine, but it didn't always work. But the infection passed.

Gillian checked up on Diana every day, made sure she had food and water, but other than that left her alone. Diana seemed perfectly content just running franticly in her wheel every night. She neglected to clean the cage, though.

But a couple of nights ago, Diana died. Gillian didn't tell any of us until yesterday when my younger brother Cole asked if she checked up on her. I think she felt guilty and too embarrassed to tell us. God, that just breaks my heart.

R.I.P. Diana the Hamster.