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This is Zoe trying to engage her Aunt Maggie in a super-fun doggie romp. Maggie isn’t interested, and doesn’t seem to understand what Zoe is even talking about.

Update: Mom reports that when she played the video, Maggie started barking at it.

I sleep a lot better when there are animals around. I don’t know why exactly, but I think it’s pretty simple: I like animals. They comfort me. They make me feel less lonely, but I know they won’t judge me if I thrash around or snore or talk in my sleep. I move around less and the quality of my sleep is better when I have a dog at the foot of my bed or just in the room. And hamsters help me get to sleep.

After Misha died, I missed hearing him running all night in his mostly-silent wheel. He was like the cheapest white noise machine this side of a radio set to static. Now Kylie, an equally petite hamster of a different species, has his old wheel. Running in it for hours on end, she creates a soft whirring sound that helps me sleep.

It’s nice to know that I have company. Who will never leave me, as long as they’re alive. Because they’re locked in cages.

Happy birthday to my best friend and furry little sister Maggie! She turned 9 on Saturday. My parents made her a cake. Since the cake contains chocolate and flour, she couldn’t eat a crumb of it, but they told her how delicious it was.

Maggie joined me for the Doctor Who Christmas special. Isn’t she the best pet? She liked the big black cyberdoggies. I liked…well, a lot of things, but I’ll keep that under wraps until more people in this country have seen it.

Here’s the computer’s eye view of us. I look unusually shiny; she looks normally adorable.

I love and miss my Maggie.