About The Hamingway

When we adopted our hamster, Hammond Hamilton Hamingway, he truly changed our whole world. I want to personally credit him for the amount of empathy I’ve developed as a person, and I believe my partner feels that way too. Hammy had such a big personality, and half the time I felt like he was telling us what to do.

As first time hamster parents, my partner and I did a lot of research but still got so many things wrong! We started off with a small enclosure, one that “exceeded” the minimum requirement necessary to make his adoption, and was even recommended by the shelter’s care guide. We thought we were doing right by Hammy, however, we could tell he was unhappy. He didn’t want to live there, and we needed to change our ways.

We started to learn more about hamsters by interacting with more likeminded people in the community and seeing what good, proper care and empathy could do. We saw our hamster actually be happier. We saw him burrow great tunnels, and decide which food was his favorite, and we did our best to give him the best that life had to offer. He lived up to two and a half years and I truly believe he died a happy old man.

While we had him, we adopted mice, and they were the sweetest, most beautiful creatures with the purest souls (well, maybe except for cheeky Bumi). They were the loves of our lives, and we carry them with us to this day. None of this could have been possible without them.

The Hamingway is a project of love dedicated to the ones that inspired us. We want to help make the care journey easier for those who have been in our situation, and we want to do our best to make the lives of hamsters and other creatures better.