It’s a beautiful day again today (marvellous for a weekend) & my musings have brought me back to the blog again. Currently I am sitting in my old bedroom with Gzifa fast asleep in her hammock beside me – there’s something very special about a contentedly snoozing chinchilla.

It's a hard life being Gazifa

Anyway, back to the reflections….

I had Monty on his own for a couple more years after Barty had been re-homed (my first rescue & re-homing, I guess) but I made the fatal mistake back in 2000 of popping into a pet shop when I was out one day & there I saw a little teeny grey chinchilla. Once again it was love at first sight. This little chin was adorable, grey all over (including his belly), bright, active & tiny. Needless to say I bought him & Button came home with me along with a rather large cage.

Where Monty started my life with chinchillas, Button started my obsession with charcoals. Later he would also be the first chin to teach me about malocclusion & the heartbreak of putting a chinchilla to sleep….. but that’s for later. For now I had one huge, beautiful, majestic standard chin in the form of His Lordship, Montague, & a small, furry whirlwind in Button. Once again they were as different as chalk & cheese & oh boy, did they teach me a lot about chinchillas!

Monty had been 10 months old when I got him & he was pretty much laid back from the moment I clapped eyes on him. Button was a completely different kettle of fish. I had no idea of his age but he was young – still had the kit shaped face & he was very, very small. In fact, he fit into the palm of my hand when I got him; hence his name really – he was as cute as a little button & as bright as a button. He even had little beady black eyes.
Button was into everything, incredibly agile & fast (Monty could be when he wanted but he rarely wanted ), & used to get himself into all sorts of trouble. They shared the spare room & each evening I would sit on the floor with my laptop & let them out. Monty pottered about in his usual manner & Button whizzed everywhere at 100 miles an hour. Monty used to sit & watch (in bemusement I am sure) as Button shot past him on some small, furry mischief. Then one evening I lost him.

I looked up from my laptop & Monty was sat in his usual manner, hoovering up some rolled oats I had put out for them but Button was nowhere to be seen. He wasn’t on the desk (one of his favourite places), nor on the chair. He wasn’t in either his or Monty’s cage, nor was he behind them. I called his name. Nothing. I listened & could not hear him. I looked up & he wasn’t on the shelves above my desk. He’d done that before – hopped up on the shelves & was watching me looking for him.
Nope, there was no sign of Button & although I knew he could not have escaped anywhere I was beginning to panic. I stood in the middle of the room, frantically looking & listening for him but there was nothing. Not a sound & no chinchilla in sight ……… except …….. there was a little grey face poking up from behind the radiator, little black beady eyes watching me. I just stood & stared. The radiator was off, thankfully, but how had he managed to squeeze his body between the radiator & the wall? The gap was tiny & he was fatter than the space…… That’s when I discovered that chinchillas can get themselves into even the smallest space & shuffle spiderman-like up, down, & side ways. I held my breath as he disappeared but soon enough he appeared out of the bottom of the radiator & off he went, hurtling about the room again.
My heart stopped hammering eventually & as I looked back on the event I’m sure he was smiling as he peeped over the top of the radiator at me!

Button continued to entertain me but in 2002 he was diagnosed with malocclusion. Watching him suffer & decline with this terrible condition was heartbreaking & also made me very angry. He was the first of my own pets I had ever had to have put to sleep & I was not allowed to be with him when he died. I vowed that whenever possible I would stay with my pets when they were PTS (unless it was during surgery) & he is the reason I have my philosophy of “rather a minute too soon than a second too late” which I live by.

Each chinchilla which comes into & out of your life teaches you something. With some it is all about character, determination & chinchilla behaviour. With others (often rescues) it is about human stupidity &/or cruelty, chinchilla welfare & health issues. With others it is (sadly) about survival strength (or lack of) during illness, the frustration of not being able to save them, & death.
Some chinchillas leave their footprints on your heart, some take a piece of you with them when they leave. Some cause you to cry with laughter, others cause you to cry with frustration. Some cause you to cry with heartbreak. There are some who make you smile daily & some who make you smile even though they have left this mortal coil.
Chinchillas as incredible creatures. They are complex & intelligent. They are wonderful enough to weedle their way into your heart & once there they stay forever.
Soppy? Perhaps but once you’ve know chinchillas I think most owners feel the same way.

Stumpy, the beautiful char-brown

Today is a beautiful day. The sun is shining (for now), the birds are singing & I am reflecting on the last 14 years (how scary is that?!) of keeping chinchillas. Today I am missing my beloved Monty; not so much in a negative way but in a ‘my goodness, he taught me so much & look how far I have come because of him” sort of way. He was the first & the one who taught me most about chins – I miss his unique character, his cheekiness & his intelligence. He was one of a kind.
When I first had Monty, all I had to go on were a couple of pet chinchilla books. I still have them but reading them now makes me cringe. Some of the information in them was so off – it’s ok to feed nuts, seeds, mixed foods, veggies; chins need to have variety to keep them healthy; a fan will keep a chinchilla cool, chins won’t over-exercise ………
Monty had a wonderful couple of years being fed all sorts of nonsense. He had raisins, a couple of cornflakes, peanuts, sunflower seeds, & various pet treats. He was allowed the freedom of my maisonette & he’d follow me around everywhere but, being Monty, he never really wore himself out. He’d take himself back to his cage when he was tired or he’d perch on the arm of the sofa & watch TV until his eyes closed & he was sound asleep. Then he’d be off again, exploring his domain & making sure everything was in it’s rightful place. He was, indeed, Lord of all he surveyed. As the Bagpuss voiceover used to say, “…… & Emily loved him.”

Then I found the forums. At that time the only UK forum was Chinchillas Unlimited which was a real eye-opener. I discovered that chinchillas should not really have fresh veggies (sorry, Monty, that’s your teeny bit of broccoli & cauliflower off the menu) due to the risks of bloat, seeds & nuts caused fatty liver problems (umm….. sorry Monty, no more sunflower seeds or peanuts for you, my boy), & raisins were full of sugar so should be limited ….. poor Monty, suddenly his diet was turned upside down & he was being restricted to ‘healthy foods’.
I discovered so many things that the books had said were ok but actually were probably more harmful than good & I was upset that I might have put my beloved boy at risk of developing problems. I certainly didn’t want to kill him with kindness.

So ……. with a determination which bordered on obsessive I began to research more about chinchilla behaviour, welfare & husbandry. I found a US forum which blew my mind (Chins & Quills – now Chins-n-Hedgies) because the US had chins for a lot longer than the UK & they had lots of history which fascinated me. They also had experienced ranchers with hundreds of chins who had a wealth of knowledge & experience that I could tap into. I lurked & absorbed information. I found old rancher books & magazines on eBay & through the forums & I bought them so I could have reference materials. I spent hours reading, writing notes, & discovering as much as I could about my furry friend; I wanted to get things right for him.

I decided I wanted to get a friend for Monty so I approached the RSPCA & discovered that there was a chin which needed rescuing locally to me. Poor lad was kept in a wooden garage in amongst a load of rubbish, tools etc. No hay, green water bottle, foul-smelling cage, a poor little old beige boy sitting with his ears down, looking forlorn – that was Barty. I brought him home, popped the terrified creature into a carrier, & blitzed his cage in the garden. I don’t think the newspaper had been changed for months, let alone weeks.
Once the cage was clean I took Barty inside & popped his cage in the spare room. Monty was still in my lounge at this time so I ‘accidentally’ quarantined, which was probably just as well. Barty settled in well & was soon looking much perkier & an awful lot cleaner – he smelled a lot better too!

So, now I had 2 chinchillas & the real fun began. Suddenly I had a new chin who did not behave like Monty at all. He was aggressive, nervous, dominant, skittish; all the things Monty was not. So I had a massive learning curve – when I introduced them during their out of cage play time I did it in a neutral setting & actually it went fairly well. Monty was so laid back he just let Barty be the dominant male. Monty just carried on being Monty while Barty settled into the top chin position.
Once Barty had settled in, however, things took a turn for the worse. He started attacking Monty when they were out of their cages & I decided to re-home him with someone who had no other chins. If I let them out separately Barty would go wild inside his cage & would try to attack Monty in his cage when it was his turn to be out. He went to someone at work who wanted a chin for their kids – Barty loved being on his own & apparently used to sit on the kids’ backs as they watched TV, lying on the floor. He was in his element & the family who adopted him loved him.

So it was back to just Monty & me again…………………………………… (to be continued)

First, the update:

It has been a long time since I wrote on this blog. There are reasons for that & although I had originally intended to chronicle as much of  life with Monty & his chums as I could, some things are just too painful to write about at the time.

2009 was a horrible year for the inhabitants of Monty’s Manor. There were several emergencies, huge vet bills, sleepless nights treating poorly chins, difficult decisions, and a some heartbreaking losses. One thing which left me devastated was the loss of His Furriness, The Lord Montague back in May.

At that point, I must say, my heart went out of chinchilla keeping &, to be perfectly honest, it is still recovering – slowly. Monty was my first chinchilla. He was the reason & his departure marked the end of an era. I genuinely miss his massive, cute, larger-than-life presence & the chin room is just not the same without him. He taught me so much about chinchillas.

Now I don’t want to be Danny Depressing so I’m not going to wallow in the mire of last year but I am going to go back and add in some posts when I can (including a memorial to Lord Montague) – to fill in some of the gaps now that things are not quite so raw.  Although I guess one could call it cheating (back-dated blogging) I think that’s preferable to doing a massive long catch up post now – even I probably wouldn’t want to read it!

So please bear with me……… I’ll add in some links when I’ve posted.

A Fresh Start -

So life in Monty’s Manor has changed quite a bit.  Talie is no longer living in my lounge & I now have 2 chins living in my bedroom: Ebby and Gzifa.

Ebby is currently watching me from her cage on my right & Gzifa (silent “g”) is burrowed under my duvet. Every now and again she appears to check I’m still here, sits on my shoulder for a minute or two, & then disappears again. The lump in the duvet is heading towards me as I type this. She will be out again soon – I will check her over for signs of being a tad warm (red ears & hot feet) &  if she is a little warm then it’s back in the cage for her. She’s pretty good though and usually comes out of under the duvet if she is getting warm. Gzifa’s a bit of a nutter!

I’ll try and update on some of the other chin room characters during the next few posts. For now it’s nice to be back.