Come one, come all ....

To the greatest juggling show on Earth!*
I'm Hammie the Hamster juggler, and I'm going to take a little time from my busy show schedule to teach you a little about the fine art - and science! - of hamster juggling. **
Today's lesson is a simple one: What IS hamster juggling, and how did it begin? (pt. 1)

Hamster juggling is an ancient art, recorded as early as 300 B.C.† It is thought to have originated as a means of carrying multiple small pets or farm animals when a basket or other suitable container was not available. As portable cages were developed, and free-ranging pet rodents became less common, juggling slowly evolved into a form of entertainment.
Local jugglers would use their own pet rodents or other small, herbivorous animals that were native to the area and readily available. As the concept of the traveling juggler became more popular (and profitable), rodent jugglers began searching out rarer, larger, and more colorful species to better entertain their audiences. Eventually, this led them to the deserts of Syria and Mongolia, where tricolored, tailless rodents roamed underground. As an animal's tail is its most unwieldy appendage when juggling (rats in particular are notorious for wrapping their tails around a juggler's wrist and ruining the entire formation), hamsters were readily embraced as juggling animals. The more boldly-patterned individuals soon outranked chipmunks as the most popular rodent for juggling at fairs and children's parties. Every year, more benefits were found for using these roly-poly rodents in place of old-fashioned choices like mice and voles. By the 1960's, around 85% of all juggling animals were from the genera Mesocricetus or Phodopus.††
The Age of the Hamster Juggler had begun.


*this statement not verified by the IJA
**hamster juggling is not recognized as a science by any official organization
† this is an arbitrarily-selected date used solely for emphasis
†† based on anecdotal evidence from my aunt Edwina