A woman is paying tribute to her late hamster by taking his ashes on a trip around Europe. Spud the hamster sadly passed away, promoting owner Lisa Murray-Lang, 47, to jet off to Hawaii last year to scatter his ashes.
She travelled 7,000 miles from Birmingham to Kahanamoku Beach, Waikiki, on a trip that set her back £3,500. However, she felt she couldn't get rid of all of the ashes, so she's taken what is left in a necklace and travelling around Europe.
Lisa claims her Syrian hamster loved cities like London, Paris and Amsterdam. The pair didn't actually visit those places together; instead, Lisa built replicas out of cardboard which he left for Spud to play with. That included replicas of famous sites, museums and restaurants for him to play in.
Lisa, a graphic designer, said: "The idea is that we're tracing his 'paw-steps' and actually going to the places that he 'visited' during his lifetime. We're heading to Paris in September, and then in November we're off to London to see all the sights.
"Then, the most important one is we're going to Amsterdam – or Hamsterdam – in December, which will be lovely as that set I made for him was always a favourite. It'll also be my tenth wedding anniversary – which is a really special way to celebrate that, and Spud."
She added: "It's a lovely way to keep celebrating his life, and a lot of it is actually being funded by the sales of my book about him. So in a way it's like an anniversary gift from Spud. I kept some of his ashes from when we buried him in Hawaii, so I'll even be able to take him along too."
Lisa decided to take the trip after publishing her book A Year in Lockdown: BeLikeSpud which features pictures of Spud visiting various holiday destinations. Lisa says that her book also saw a boom in sales following Spud's sad passing last year – and that people now take copies with them abroad.
She added: "I still have people send me stories about their children reading the book to their own hamsters. I know one young boy is taking his copy to Portugal on a holiday too this year, so it's like Spud is still travelling.
"It's been amazing to celebrate his life this last year with all of these trips. I'm not sure what I'll do next - but there are still places he 'visited' that I'd love to see."
It's not the first time a hamster's travels have caught people's attention.
Last year, members of staff revealed that a VIP guest had requested to be reunited with the family hamster while on holiday.
The guest noticed that his daughter was missing her pet hamster so to cheer her up, he asked the hotel staff to organise for the hamster to be flown over asap to join them on their family holiday.
Of course said hamster couldn't fly solo, so a pet handler was also hired to escort the fluffy guest all the way to the hotel and directly delivered to the delighted girl.
