My darling chinchilla Bubble    

It had been now his first-month anniversary of his departure, the anniversary of my darling chinchilla Bubble who left me unexpectedly.

He came into my life out of the blue eight years ago. One day at the pet shop for my pet hamsters, I saw this little white sweet animal. He was so adorable, so charming and he ran to the front of the cage and put his tiny paws on the edge and looked at me intently.

That was when he won my heart. He was so cute and fluffy, and he could be my new pet when all my hamsters were gone. I took him out to cuddle but he wriggled a lot. Nonetheless, I made up my mind to bring him home to be my pet.

At home, I checked online for his cage and found one suitable sizable one, ordered and had it delivered to my flat in eagerness for his arrival.

Meanwhile. I called the pet shop to reserve him.  After arranging for transport with my sister in law, we went the very next day to fetch him home to be part of my life.

Bubble was his name. He was a male white chinchilla, already seven months old. From calculation, I believed his birthday to be the same as mine: 25^th August.

Henceforth every year, we would celebrate our birthday together. He would get special treats and birthday wishes, even birthday gifts and New Year gifts from my sister.

It took me eight long years to get used to him and his changing habits.

Training him to pee at the right place took four years. In the beginning, he would pee under the cupboards, on my carpet and everywhere. It was quite frustrating because I let him out into the living room everyday from noon to 7pm. Every night it was considerable cleaning-up.

He loved to pee on the green carpet which I inherited from my late mum. Maybe the green colour reminded him of the grass land that he liked. When I could not stand the stench anymore, I enquired on the dry-cleaning fee to remove the stench.

It turned out that it was no small sum. In fact, it was more cost-effective to purchase another new one. So, my late mum’s carpet had to be discarded with a heavy heart. After further purchases of two brand-new carpets, I gave up the idea of the having any carpet for the living room.

Later, I found the clumping cat litter could be used. I placed them in a tray both in the living room and one in his cage. Ever since then, he knew how to pee in these trays and my four years struggles was at last resolved. I was so thrilled! Hallelujah! At long last!

This little rascal was no little docile darling. He like to bite everything. All my furniture from table, to bench, cupboards and even edge of walls were bitten and marred by him, sometime badly destroyed. Good news was that most of my furniture were not new, so it did not bother me a bit.

Yet he alone destroyed four electrical items. Once, he even bit the wire of the local internet connection and I had to contact the local service provider for repair. Sigh!

Every afternoon, he would wait outside the bedroom of my sister. When she came out, he would rush in, sometimes he was so swift that no one noticed. Only two hours later did I noticed that he was missing and then found out that he had entered her room quietly.

He also like to roam into the kitchen and the backyard. Once again, he would wait outside the kitchen door. When opened, he would hurry in and hopped onto the shelves and ventured to the back of the washing machine. Why he loved these dark places was to this day still a mystery to me.

He was somewhat a fussy eater. His diet varied from different fruits like strawberry, cherry tomato, grape to different type of nuts like walnut, pistachio, peanut and almond nut too.

If he adored it, he would consume it for a while. After that, he would stop eating them, and I had to consider what would be next for his new diet.

He of course ate the basic chinchilla food like hay, dried grass and herbs. At times, I would give him a slice of the red apple and he will dashed to eat it eagerly.

Most afternoon, he would take his naps behind some chairs, stools or cloth draping.

There were times when there was no sight of him for a few hours. When his absence was noticed, there was a frantic search around the flat, with agonised shouting “Bubble where are you?”

We searched for him all around the place, fearing the worst that he might have jumped out of the kitchen window nine storey down.

But he would appear from nowhere with that innocent expression, nevertheless to my total relief.

When we had our dinner around 6pm, he would remain at one corner yet always visible to me. He was so deep in thought and looked as if he was meditating.

When I had finished my dinner, I would catch him, but it was no easy task. I could not understand why he was so afraid of me even after eight years. He would run around the living room and I had to group our effort to trap him in a corner to catch him.

Only then he would jump onto my left shoulder. This was the best private time that we had together, watching TV and viewing the outside scene and I would chat chit with him, though It was me doing all the talking.

Around 7pm, I would walk to the cage with him on my left shoulder. Then I opened the top of the cage and he would jump into his cage. This was the usual daily routine, and he knew that it was time to return to his own space.

In his cage, I have installed a flying saucer wheel which I had it air flown from Canada. In the beginning few years, he would run onto this flying saucer for hours in the middle of the night and he certainly caused many disruptions to our sleep.

Needless to say, I received plenty of protests from my sister.

All in all, he was basically a healthy pet. Once he had diarrhoea after he ate the tip of the banana bunch which my sister harvested from the farm. I treated him with the medicine from the pet shop for a few weeks until he discovered. Another time he was unwell, probably flu, and he refused to eat or drink for a few days. But he recovered promptly.

This year, he contracted diarrhoea again, but it took him longer to get well.

He got weaker and weaker by the day. He slept a lot and hardly moved. It was this time that I realised that he had aged, and I had not noticed his failing health until then. I had begun mentally and emotionally to accept that he would leave me soon one day.

That day came on Tues 13 October 2020. Since he did not consume anything the last two days, I decided to get him milk. I went out to buy the milk and returned home around noon.

Hurriedly I brought him out to drink the milk. However, he only took a few deep gasps and one deep breath and then he was gone.

Apparently, he must have waited for my return to see him for the last time. Undoubtedly, he cared about bidding farewell with me before he departed for Chinchilla Rainbow land and I was grateful that I was with him in his last moment.

All in all, this written short record was a treasured recollection of how I met him, our times together with our ups and downs and of his final farewell.

To my darling chinchilla Bubble, thank you for all the joy , fun and all the wonderful memories of our times of you resting on my tummy in bed, of you standing on my left shoulder, of those times when I searched high and low in fear, searching in and out everywhere , wondering if you had fallen to the ground.

You had been a wonderful beautiful unforgettable part of my life. I do miss you greatly and I will remember you always. Bye bye Bubble, bye bye darling. Mummy miss you a lot. 

DOB : 25 Aug 2012

DOD: 13 Oct 2020