Cheeky Chinchillas - Boo Boo's Story By Linda and Ed

This is the story of Linda and Ed's chinchilla, Boo Boo, affectionately known as the 'Old Guy' Boo Boo:  1st July 1988 ... 1st January 2011

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Boo Boo (The Tough Guy's Story) (written by Linda July 2009) Boo Boo, also affectionately known as 'Old Guy' was born in July of 1988. His life started out a little tough. While he was quite young, maybe a couple of weeks old, his mother past away so we began handfeeding him. The vet said try milk and oatmeal mixed. We fixed it in the cap of a milk bottle and fed it to him. He managed to survive which was the beginning of showing just what a tough guy he is. He was actually my step-daughter's pet, but when she became a teenager ... well she had better things to do. While he was a baby though, she used to carry him around everywhere in her big baggie pockets ... she even carried him to the store with her. While he was still young, he squeezed through the cage squares in the middle of the night and was found, luckily, in the toilet clinging to life. Thank God someone had turned on the light! We don't know how long he was in there, but he was not really moving after we rescued him. We had a waterbed and laid him on it to warm him up. Again, he survived. When he was about 3 years old, I came home one day, said my quick 'hi's' but was busy around the house until sometime later, I realized he was in the same spot as earlier, which is obviously not normal for a three year old chin. I had been giving him pillow cases to play with because he loved them. He had ripped the edge of the pillow case, had gotten his back foot wrapped up in a thread. It was absolutely horrid. It was so tight around his leg I couldn't hardly see it. I finally got it unwrapped, but as you can imagine his leg was limp. He started chewing his leg, so we had to put medication on it, then I had to feed him some medicine and because of the medicine I had to feed him yogurt. This went on for like 6 months. But, again he survived! Shortly after that I got him a girlfriend, Yogi. It was not exactly love at first sight. I had to put their cages near each other for quite a while, then I let them loose together in a large bathroom. There was some hissing and other behaviors. I wasn't sure they would end up together, but they did and oh did they love each other. They spent many good years together and had a number of children. I still have one of their babies, Freckles, who is now 15 years old. Yogi died a number of years ago, so Boo Boo has been without a partner, but he spent several years at work with my husband who works at a University. Many of the college kids would go by his office just to come and say Hi to Old Guy. He was extremely popular, even among his co-workers. He had many visitors everyday. Now, because of a change in buildings he is at home with us. My husband's co-workers are always asking about him and sending treats home for him. I think he might miss all his visitors, but I think he also loves being with us. He doesn't move around as much anymore. Every once in a while he'll run in his wheel. I have a fleece tunnel from HammockyHammocks that he dearly loves. He's curled up in it almost every morning. His other favorite thing to play in is a soda pop box. He is in our bedroom and as soon as you walk in the room he comes to the corner and stretches and waits for his treat. He absolutely loves to be pet especially between the front legs and behind the ears. He used to not like his back pet, but seems to enjoy it now. He's not as plump as he used to be, but is still eating some everyday. Sometimes his eyes water and sometimes he squeals at night for no apparent reason. I worry if he's hurting, but then my husband says I worry too much and that he is fine. He feels skinny to me, but he still weighs 590 grams. When we let him out to run in the bedroom, he does move about the room investigating, but not too quickly. We love him so much. My husband has his picture as the cover picture for his phone! 1st January 2011 Sadly, Booboo died on the 1st January 2011. He had a wonderful long life with Linda and Ed. He will be missed so much.