Bio-Air. Wonderful stuff, Bio-Air. It’s a very powerful and effective essential oil based air freshener. It contains eucalyptus, peppermint, camphor, and menthol. Used very sparingly after cleaning out the chin room it fills the room with a minty aroma for hours. It’s also good for putting under the cage of any chins with respiratory infections or colds (just a tiny drop on the newspaper but only if the chins cannot reach it) to aid with breathing and clear the nasal passages etc.

Sounds like a sales pitch doesn’t it? I don’t mean it to but this stuff is great - Debbie recommended it some time last year and now I use it at least once a week to make the chin room smell clean and fresh. It’s powerful and it lasts for ages - and the chins seem to like it.

So …….. on to the story. I keep the trigger spray down by the sink in the kitchen (it’s also good for eliminating cooking smells like bacon) but somehow the bottle was balanced on a bottle of fabric softener. When I came home on Monday I could smell the tell-tale peppermint aroma but could not initially work out where it was coming from. Talie and I were blaming each other for using it but neither of us did. Odd. Definitely odd - because we could both smell it. Panic! Had I left it in the chins’ room and it had been knocked over? Use too much of the stuff and it makes your eyes water for a while - I know this because I used it in the car once a little over-enthusiastically - and needed to drive around for 3 days with the windows down!

The smell seemed to be coming from the kitchen (we deduced this by sniffing loudly - very scientific) and I suddenly saw the bottom of the bottle - it was upside down. Now this stuff is not cheap and I was about to start bemoaning my financial loss (it’s expensive to buy but lasts for ages - unless you spill it!) when I realised that the contents of the bottle were now soaked into an old piece of towel which I used for the chins. Oh well, it must be useful as an air freshener in it’s own right now - a bit like the fabric wicks you find in those liquid air fresheners. I deposited the cloth in the chin room by the air purifier and immediately the room was filled with the scent of menthol, camphor, peppermint, and eucalyptus. It took me ages to wash the minty smell from my hands too.

Its now 2 days later and the chins still have a “hint of minty freshness”. It’s wonderful. I wonder how long it will last?

The kits are beginning to popcorn hop like little furry fleas. I love it when they do that. They are all gaining weight, even the smallest female, and Leila’s big kits are begining to mimic their mother by tasting pellets and hay. One of them was looking particulalry smug earlier with a tiny piece of shredded wheat in his/her mouth.

Good grief! How time flies. Tonka (aka Fingerbobs) is a year old today.

He celebrated his first birthday with an extra mini shredded wheat and a good old tickle under the chin. The shredded wheat went down well; the tickling did not. “Mr Independent” has become a stroppy adult, even more so since he lives with Gracie. Oh yes, he’s quite protective of his Mrs. Tickling, it seems, is not dignified for a chinchilla in his position - I had my hand firmly shoved aside and he proceeded to nibble me in disgust. Gracie just watched from her dust bath.

Today was also marked by the sad passing of dear Maya. Recently she had begun to show the earliest signs of discomfort when she was eating and would only take the syringe food. Debbie and I discussed her future and we both agreed that the time was right for her to be given a dignified, peaceful, and pain free rest.

I took her to see Jade after giving her one last syringe feed - she went in her beloved cozy bed, warm and with a full tummy. Just as I promised.

Putting any animal to sleep is heartbreaking but putting a spirited one to sleep is even more heart-wrenching. Maya had such a zest for life but her body (her teeth in this case) betrayed her. I popped her in the anaesthetic box still tucked up in her bed and bless her she just sat there…. and sat there ….. and stubbornly sat there! She fought the anaesthetic. There was no struggling, just an iron-willed defiance as she sat in her bed. For a few moments I agonized over whether I was doing the right thing for her. I almost asked Jade to stop - just for a split second - but I looked at Maya’s little face and I just could not put her through any more. To do so would have been incredibly selfish.

In some respects it was the hardest euthanasia I have participated in - others were excruciating in different ways but Maya; dear, stubborn, feisty, precious and amazing Maya had made me question my decision. No other chinchilla has ever made me do that - regretted having to do it because the loss is painful, yes but question the decision? No. When I took the emotion out of it and looked at the situation from a purely clinical viewpoint I knew it was the right decision.  Maya had rocked my confidence - even though, in my heart of hearts I knew I was doing the right thing for her.

Jade was brilliant - she has carried out so many euthanasias for me over the last 3 years or so and she knows me very well. When Maya was gone she felt Maya’s bottom jaw and simply said “1 million percent right decision”. In that moment it was one simple sentence which meant so much.

I brought Maya home, now forever sleeping in her beloved bed - she will be buried in The Manor alongside all the other precious little souls. I should imagine chinny heaven is in for a wake-up call.

Sleep well, Maya - I hope you’re causing chaos wherever you are!

A memorial to a very dear rescue chinchilla - Chloe. ? - 05/10/07

Chloe arrived at The Manor following what can only be described as an awful life. She was apparently found abandoned with her partner (Sam) and a young kit in a cardboard box under a hedge in the snow. She had clearly been owned by people who had no idea about separating the male when a kit was born and she must have had several breedbacks.
When I saw Chloe for the first time she was deeply depressed, fur chewed, and had practically given up on life. Despite being in a good home with my friends, the original rescue had inadvertently mis-sexed the last kit and so poor Chloe gave birth yet again - to a stillborn kit. It was the last straw for her.
I had gone to visit my friends and they asked me to take a look at Chloe. What I saw broke my heart - a pathetically small and thin, 3-legged, fur chewed little chinny. She sat on my chest, completely unmoving for several hours and seemed to have no interest in anything at all. It was so unusual for a chinchilla and she touched something in me - I bought a small carrier for her and I brought her back to The Manor, dreading that she would not cope with the stress of the move and worried that she was too far gone to save.

Chloe arrived at Monty’s Manor on Sunday 19th September 2004. I quarantined her in my bedroom - both for quarantine purposes and also so that I could monitor her closely. This is her the day she arrived; snuggled up in my bed with her cozy towel and hot water bottle.

With a change of environment and no other chinchillas around her, Chloe’s spark began to reappear. Within a few weeks she was showing signs of interest in food, life, and exploring her new cage. She stopped fur chewing and slowly began to put on weight. I moved her cage into the lounge so that she could be around me during the evenings and this was where she started watching TV

Chloe continued to show distress when other chinchillas were around - I moved her cage (a Paul Spooner wooden framed cage!) back into my bedroom as a permanent arrangement and she seemed very happy. I customised her nest box so that it had underfloor heating (using a very small reptile heat mat) because she seemed to always like warmth.

Eventually I managed to introduce Chloe to Bummble and they became great pals - sometimes I would not see either of them if it was cold outside. They would be in the heated box snuggled up together.

One of Chloe’s favourite things was watching TV - she liked E.R, CSI, and anything with gore or gunshots. She would sit on her side shelf and position herself so she could see - if there was something which interested her she flicked her tail to the left to support her body (to compensate for her missing left back leg) and would sit up and watch intently.

Chloe was grumpy too - if she were human she’d be a female Victor Meldrew. She knew exactly what she did and did not want and she made those feelings known in no uncertain terms!
Raisins were to be given at 9pm on the dot! 9pm would arrive and so would Chloe - on her side shelf. If you didn’t give her a raisin she would stare at you in a most disconcerting manner until you relented and gave her one. You could feel her stare boring into your head at 100 paces I think
She is the only chin I have ever known who could grunt when she was displeased - she only did it at specific times or occasions and it was not a noise I have ever heard another chin make. It was a definite complaint - kids playing outside or workmen making noise would be rebuked with a grunt, as would the cold weather. She would sit in her cozy house and mutter audibly. She was a cantakerous chinny who made everyone who knew her laugh at her antics and fall in love with her character.
Some days she would want fresh banana, others not. Some days she wanted shredded wheat, others not. Some days Enervite was wonderful stuff, other days it was disgusting ……….. everything was on Chloe’s terms and that’s how she was happiest.

In the 3 years I shared my life with Chloe she had become more rounded (although she was never over 440g even at her heaviest - so should never have been bred from full stop!) and was thoroughly enjoying life. She was an eccentric larger-than-life character and had me totally wrapped around her paw.
Sadly however, Chloe was never destined to live to a ripe old age (having said that, no-one knows how old she really was) and she was always a frail little soul. Her body was abused and depleted of nutrients for so long - multiple breedbacks had taken their inevitable toll. To many babies and too little care.

Chloe began to lose weight and fur chew again a little while ago - her spirit was bright and active but her body was just too damaged to continue. Heartbroken, I said my last goodbye to her on Friday 5th October.

This is Chloe in her better times.

Chloe, The Manor and my bedroom are not the same without you. I miss you terribly.
There is no pain for you now, nor any distress. Sleep well baby