Farewell (for now)

I'm sorry to announce that Lizzie has passed away. She had never really recovered from her illness but lived a comfortable life full of love and treats until the end. Her final journey total since we started recording her was 968.87 miles, which put her in the middle of Carson National Forest, just outside of Taos, New Mexico.

Thanks to everyone who has been keeping track of Lizzie over the past year and a half. She will be sorely missed. Her journey may have been cut short, but we are planning on getting another hamster in a little while to continue on her path across the United States. Stay tuned.

Recent Activity

Ever since her illness, Lizzie hasn't been running much in her wheel. She's still eating and drinking normally and looks healthy, but we're not sure if this is another bout of hibernation from last year or her just getting old. Probably some combination of the two. Tommy but together another graph to compare her recent running activity to the past couple years and it clearly shows she's hardly been using her wheel (other than occasionally nesting in it).

More Data

Lizzie is feeling much better and is back to her old self, but her running has declined by far. We're definitely glad she's back on her feet and healthy again! In our worry when she first fell ill, we crunched some numbers to see if it would help pinpoint when things began to turn for the worse.

As you can see in the graph, her average speed is quite telling of how serious her condition was. Even though her average distance per night has been steadily decreasing over her life, her speed stayed relatively constant throughout her life, dropping only a little over the winter. Only until she fell gravely ill a couple weeks ago did her speed drop dramatically. Hopefully now that she's better we'll be able to document her recovery!

Current status

After going through a full round of drugs and antibiotics, Lizzie seems to be breathing much easier. She still is a little too lethargic to be running in her wheel, but at least her appetite is back and she seems to be in stable condition.

Lizzie's Illness

For the past few days, Lizzie has been very sick and hasn't been able to run much. On Wednesday she was panting very heavily and would sit in very unusual positions squinting her eyes, so I took her to the vet Friday morning. Apparently there is something pushing on her lung and trachea making it very hard for her to breathe. They took a couple xrays but were not sure what was causing the problems. They sent me home with some drugs to help her breathe easier, which has made her noticeably calmer and she's started to eat and drink again, but alas, we still don't know what's wrong with our poor Lizzie! If anyone has seen their hamsters experience similar symptoms and have suggestions on how to improve her condition we'd most appreciate it! Below are her xrays.

Updated Distance per Day

Hey guys,

It's been a while since I've posted so I'd thought I'd put up a new graph on her daily progress. Recently she's been snoozing a lot and hasn't been running much, which may be because my room has been so hot in the past month. Hopefully she'll pick up again when the weather cools down a bit!

Technical Difficulties

Hey guys! We've been having some technical difficulties on our end for the past week, so the website hadn't been updating Lizzie's progress through New Mexico. However, it's all fixed now and luckily her distance traveled during that time was still recorded, so if in case you noticed that Lizzie traveled a massive distance over the past 24 hours, it's not because Tommy and I are slave driving her with whips. ;)

A new state at last!

Lizzie enjoyed the scenery in Arizona so much, she decided to dawdle a bit to soak it up as much as possible. But eventually, the call of duty summoned her back onto her epic trip across the US. So at last, Lizzie has crossed the border into the state of New Mexico! Not only that, but she has now officially run over 800 miles total since we launched this website. Let's just hope she doesn't get lost along the way like a certain other famous furry rodent...

Pitter Patter

After what sees like a brief winter slumber, it seems Lizzie has resumed her journey across the US! I had my suspicions when I started hearing the distinctive pitter patter of her wheel more, but I had Tommy check the data to double check, and sure enough, Lizzie is back to her old way running ways, though she's still not quite as active as she once was in her youth. We're not quite sure what caused the dramatic slowdown in December, but I am happy to report it's over. :)

Hamster Hike

Woa! A fan who found our Instructable has set up their own website to track their hamster, Horatio, as he journeys across the U.K.! We're super flattered! Go check them out at Hamster Hike!

Update

Fear not, my friends, Lizzie is still alive and well. Though she isn't running as far during her nightly jaunts in her middle age, Tommy has made it easier for her to get around the vast carpeted plains of my room by giving her rides on his iRobot Create. The two of them get along pretty well, though occasionally Liz will push his buttons.

"How do I launch the missiles?"

Looking Back

Hey guys! Wow, sorry for the long delay in between posts. I'll admit up front I've been pretty delinquent about them lately. Thanks though for all your emails! We really love receiving your comments and feedback, so write away! :)

Since it's the new year, I thought it'd be fun to show Lizzie's progress over the course of 2008. Tommy put together the following graph showing Lizzie's daily running activities.

There's definitely been a decline in the average distance she runs per night as she's gotten older. We're not sure on her exact age, but she's probably somewhere around the 1.5 year mark, or about middle-age for a Syrian hamster, given her life expectancy of about 2.5 years. For some reason in the past couple months her running has shown a particularly large drop-off in her daily mileage. Tommy and I are still scratching our heads as to why.