The Syrian hamster pushed the limits of modern plastic engineering during her strictly scheduled 3 a.m. sprints.
NAPERVILLE, Ill. — Cinnamon, a Syrian hamster whose late-night pursuit of hypersonic speeds pushed the limits of modern plastic-wheel engineering, died Tuesday in her enclosure. She was 2. The cause was a catastrophic structural failure of her secondary centrifuge while attempting to break the sound barrier, her caretakers confirmed.
Born in a PetSmart terrarium, Cinnamon survived a traumatic 2023 cage cleaning and held the household record for fitting 14 yogurt drops into a single cheek pouch. Colleagues remembered her as a fiercely driven athlete who operated strictly between 2 a.m. and 4:30 a.m., refusing to let a lack of actual forward momentum stall her ambitions.
She never cared that she was just running in place, she only cared that the entire house could hear her doing it.
Cinnamon is survived by a half-chewed cardboard tube, a slightly leaking water bottle, and a confused golden retriever. Services will be held Thursday behind the garage, pending the thawing of the soil.