Swifty

Swifty was Speedy's 98th Street School counterpart and the class hamster at 98th Street School, who died in "Swifty, We Hardly Knew Ye". He is the only character to die in the series.

Swifty was the pet of Miss Ropey's fourth grade class, and considered a friend to all the students. He liked to run on his hamster wheel while chasing a squeaky rubber carrot, and enjoyed both garlic croutons and distilled water. Normally, Swifty stayed in his cage with enough food to see him through each weekend, and was greeted by the kids every morning in class.

However one day, Mickey goes over to wake Swifty only to find that he would not wake up. When they saw that he did not touch his weekend snack, Miss Ropey tried to distract the class to prevent alarm, only for Greta to discover that Swifty had died. Devastated, the students decided to hold a funeral in his honor, much to Rigalli's objections as she hid her grief over Swifty's passing by pretending she did not care about him. With Queen Barb's permission, the entire school gathered to lay Swifty to rest.

At the funeral, it was found that the former 98th Street students on the high school football team, the bus drivers, and even Mayor Frisbie had all known Speedy at one point or another when they came to pay their respects. During the service, Rigalli tried to stop the burial and cried over Swifty's body, during which she noticed that Swifty had features she had not noticed before. At this point, the other mourners realized the Speedy they were burying was not the same hamster they had all known.

It was revealed by Miss Ropey that Swifty was actually the name of a long line of male and female hamsters who had been the pets of the fourth grade classes for over forty years. Due to their short lifespans, each Swifty was replaced by a new one without the rest of the students even knowing. The mourners almost walked out as they had realized the Swifty's they knew were long gone, but C.J. convinced everybody that now was their opportunity to honor every single Swirly as the great friend each of them had been to their classes through the years.

Moved by C.J.'s speech, Queen Barb dedicated Swifty's grave to every single Swifty that came before him, and he was buried as the entire school remembered the great times they shared with every Swifty they had come to know.