When Adam was 8 years-old, his older brother Ryan bought a pet hamster named Rick, which prompted Adam to beg his parents for one as well. Eventually they bought him a golden (or syrian) hamster named Skippy.
He first mentions them in his 3rd grade composition notebook, dated Sept 6, 2000:
"Once my brother wanted a hamster so I wanted one I keeped asking for one. Then my Mom or Dad promised I could have one. We went to the pet shop and bought a Brown and white hamter [sic]. Now I am really happy because my Mom or Dad made a promise and got a cute hamster. Now that promise turned into happyness [sic] for me and my Hamster."
Later on Oct 25, he wrote about dressing up as a hamster for Halloween:
"I am going to be a hamster this year for Halloween. Yesterday my Mom got material because no stores sell hamster costumes. The head of the hamster will be like a hood for my head. There is this Halloween group where you split up with a partner to get candy. My partner is going to be a police man so he may arrest me because I will not were [sic] a coller."
The two hamsters are brought up again in another entry on Dec 4 and described in more detail:
"Me and Ryan got new hamsters. My hamster is a teddy hamster or a golden hamster. Ryan's hamster is mixed between the two of them. My hamster is named Skippy. Ryan's is named Rick. I will be having Skippy's birthday in about 160 days. Skippy is older than Rick but those are when we got them. They are still zero years old. They use to like eachother but they fight eachother now."
On May 4, 2001, he writes a letter to girl named 'Calylah' where he mentions Skippy at the beginning:
"Dear Calylah,
My favorite color is silver. My favorite animals are hamsters, mice, rats, gerbals and any other small furry animals. I have one pet. It is a hamster. My hamter's name is Skippy. He is white on his belly, brown on the back and face, has black beedy eyes, and sharp nails."
On Sept 2, 2003, an 11 year-old Adam writes a letter to a teacher (I'm assuming) named Mrs. Strait for a school assignment, where he talks about his new pet hamsters:
"I have one hamster in my house, and two at my dad's apartment. The one in my house is a Panda Hamster, so I named it Panda. It is much larger than my last hamster. The other two are Dwarf Hamsters. Dwarf Hamsters are the only hamsters in general that can live together, probably because they are so small. Their names are Chibi and Cheeks."
Pictures from around 2004, most likely the hamsters mentioned above
Adam's love for hamsters continues well into adulthood, keeping a bookmark labeled "Bucky Brightaner'' for hamster photos and also continuing to mention them in his online posts
Apr 20, 2010: A deleted post made by Adam on the Shocked Beyond Belief forum, under the topic of 'what is fun?'
Also on Jan 31, 2011, he mentions them in a completely unrelated topic
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