Almost eight years ago, Jen asked Nik and I if we would be interested in taking care of two chinchillas her friend no longer wanted. Strangely, Nik and I had actually discussed of getting chinchillas at some point, so it seemed like it was meant to be. We met them at Jen's apartment and to the rotund, calm, food-motivated one, Nik said, "you're chubs," and to the skinny, squirmy, restless one, Nik said, "you're skinnay." And that how we acquired Chubs (aka Cloud) and Skinnay (aka Yuki).
Last evening, after a hectic day with the kids, we noticed Chubs wasn't well; he was lethargic and working hard to breathe. I took him to the emergency veterinarian at midnight and got back home by 2 am. I checked in on him at 5 am, and he still wasn't doing well, and by the time I woke again at 7 am he had died. Nik and I are obviously shocked and saddened since it happened so fast, though I'm glad that he passed quickly.. it would have been painful to watch him suffer like that for days.
I tried to explain it to Sora, but the fact that Chubs is gone has flown over her head. Kai actually seems to understand, when we explained to Kai that Chubs was sick and died, Kai asked, "Is Chubs coming back?" and we had to explain to him that once things died, they don't come back. Later, over lunch he said, "I miss Chubs," to which Sora replied, "Chubs upstairs." (we had moved him up to our bedroom so we could take better care of him)
I am surprised at how upset I am at Chubs' death. Perhaps it's guilt: I feel complicit in his death since we've been neglecting our relatively self-sufficient pets while taking care of our kids. We'll try to take better care of Skinnay from now on, I'm worried that he'll get lonely without his cagemate and start doing poorly as well.
I'll miss the way he parted his ears when you scratched him on the head. Sorry buddy and thank you for all the good times.
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| Meeting Chubs for the first time |
Last evening, after a hectic day with the kids, we noticed Chubs wasn't well; he was lethargic and working hard to breathe. I took him to the emergency veterinarian at midnight and got back home by 2 am. I checked in on him at 5 am, and he still wasn't doing well, and by the time I woke again at 7 am he had died. Nik and I are obviously shocked and saddened since it happened so fast, though I'm glad that he passed quickly.. it would have been painful to watch him suffer like that for days.
I tried to explain it to Sora, but the fact that Chubs is gone has flown over her head. Kai actually seems to understand, when we explained to Kai that Chubs was sick and died, Kai asked, "Is Chubs coming back?" and we had to explain to him that once things died, they don't come back. Later, over lunch he said, "I miss Chubs," to which Sora replied, "Chubs upstairs." (we had moved him up to our bedroom so we could take better care of him)
I am surprised at how upset I am at Chubs' death. Perhaps it's guilt: I feel complicit in his death since we've been neglecting our relatively self-sufficient pets while taking care of our kids. We'll try to take better care of Skinnay from now on, I'm worried that he'll get lonely without his cagemate and start doing poorly as well.
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| Skinnay always used Chubs as a body pillow |
I'll miss the way he parted his ears when you scratched him on the head. Sorry buddy and thank you for all the good times.
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