ALL power to the local hamster that survived picking up a lethal dose of rat poison. I have great sympathy for these little creatures, which must be one of the most pointless pets ever for kids because they sleep all day and dislike being handled.

But hamsters do serve one important purpose, and that is teaching their young owners about death.

Most hamsters pass on around the age of two, but my daughter's first one, Stanley, did not even make it that far.

He devoted most of his short life trying to escape, spending his waking hours gripping the bars of his cage and trying to gnaw through the metal.

His exercise was taken inside one of those see-through plastic balls. One day, he accidentally collided with the skirting board and the lid came off. Stanley shot up the chimney and disappeared behind the fireplace, showing up inside a humane trap a few days later looking sooty, defiant and a bit thinner.

He repeated this feat a couple more times until the day he went for good.

When my daughter finally accepted he was not coming back, it prompted a huge outpouring of grief, including a poem called 'Oh Stanley!' and a home-made memorial cross.

We never did find out what happened to him, although next door's cat remains my prime suspect. I just hope Stanley enjoyed his brief taste of freedom.