I spent over $200 to immortalize my dead pet hamster — as a stuffed stripper

When Jess Porter Langson’s beloved pet hamster passed away, she knew she had to do “something special” to remember him by: She chose to stuff him. After shelling out more than $200 to taxidermy her precious Roborovski dwarf hamster Hammington — “Hammy,” for short — the rodent has been immortalized as a tiny stripper dancing for cash around a pole, miniature dollar bills and a hot pink thong included.

“This hamster was so iconic and all of my friends knew Hammy and wanted to see him. He needed something special,” Porter Langson, 27, told Kennedy News. “I don’t even know where the stripping hamster thing came from but I thought, what is more iconic than a hamster on a stripper pole hustling for money?” Now, Hammy — who served as her “emotional support hamster” in her “formative” years when she first moved to London in her 20s — watches over her next to her bed.

“It would be shocking if I ever brought anyone home, I wouldn’t know what to tell them,” she admitted. The Australian native music merchandiser — who now resides in Brighton, East Sussex — bought Hammington during the pandemic, adopting her role as rodent caretaker as a new “hobby.” “He ended up living a really long time.

I only got the hamster because they live for one to two years and that’s all I could commit to.” Thankfully, Hammington had lived a long life when he passed at three years old last August, dying of old age in his sleep. “A good way to go,” she said. “Not like flying into a blender or something like some people’s hamsters.” His importance to her life needed to be commemorated somehow, and that’s when she came across taxidermy artist Bea Ostrowska, forking over more than $220 to stuff the hamster.

“I was blown away. In my mind, I was preparing that something wouldn’t be right and I thought I was going to have to tell her to redo it and take my dead hamster apart again,” she said. “But when I saw it I was just gobsmacked like, wow this is beyond perfect. She did such a good job.” Ostrowska — whose creation has baffled and entertained Porter Langson’s TikTok followers — told Kennedy News that it was a “pleasure” to meet her and help honor her late pet.

The skilled taxidermist even sewed the hamster’s panties out of a tiny piece of fuchsia fabric and permanently turned up the corners of his mouth to make a “creepy little smile.” “Everybody loves him,” said Porter Langson. “I pitched the idea to my friends first and asked if it was morally questionable or a good idea and everyone said I had to do it.

He deserved it.”.