Now this is a much better picture. It's Scratch again, this time his face instead of the other end. Scratch is the son of my niece Sylvie and her husband Ike. He is also a very special hamster because he is the great grandson of the late, great Sherman, who is sort of a patriarch among this hamster colony. He's also the brother of Sir Fuzzy Logic. Sir Fuzz looks like his parents -- he has papa Ike's coloring and mother Sylvie's long hair. But Scratch is a throwback to old Sherman, and was, most symbolically, born April 7, 1998, the day Sherman passed away.

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