11.08.2010

Mr. Smurfers, Boo-Boo, The Boo

James has reminded (a lot) lately that I have been bad at updating. So I decided to write a post about the second most important man in my life. No, not my dad, but Smurf. So heads up... this post will just be an excuse to gush about my baby and post pictures of him.

Smurf a.k.a. Mr Smurfers a.k.a. Boo-Boo a.k.a. The Boo is my chinchilla. What is a chinchilla you ask?


















Answer: The cutest freaking animal ever. Period. End of sentence.


And Smurf is the cutest chinchilla ever.


End of post.








Just Kidding. But only about it being the end of the post.


Smurf came into my life during my sophomore year of college. It was the weekend of my 20th birthday and my roommate and I ventured to Jack's Pets in Cincy to play with the puppies. And all alone, in a cage, was Smurf looking basically like this:













How could you say no to a face like this?

And I couldn't say no. So I began to make a series of bad choices that somehow ended up okay. But please, learn from my mistakes.

Bad Decision #1 - Don't buy an animal on impulse.

I decided that without knowing how to take care of a chinchilla, what his needs were, or if I could take care of him, that it would be a great idea to buy him and learn everything I needed to know from the thin, white book at the pet store. Surprisingly, Smurf is still alive and healthy after all our mishaps.

These mishaps included not realizing chinchillas are social animals who should be in pairs and can not easily be introduced to each other (if male) later in life, that temperatures over 75 degrees are EXTREMELY dangerous to chinchillas due to their coats, and that pet store wheels can really hurt a chinchillas back.

Bad Decision #2 - Don't buy an animal with your roommate.

Do I really need to explain why this is a bad idea? Thankfully my roommate got bored with Smurf like the majority of other things in her life.... oooooooh buuuuurn. Yep. Went there. Anyways...

During the summer between junior year and senior year, old roommate had Smurf live with her at school in the upstairs hallway of an old off campus house. The house did not have air conditioning and being upstairs in a hallway, he didn't have a window to have a breeze. Now the day I picked Smurf up to come live with me in my fab house with AC it was 94 degrees outside. Indoors it was hotter. If you notice in bad decision number one, temperatures over 75 degrees is the danger zone. 70 degrees is the upper end of okay and 75 is bad. It was 94 degrees on that one day. So yeah, not sure how I still have Smurf alive, but I am thankful for his guardian angel.

Bad Decision # 3 - Don't buy an animal unless you know their life span.

Smurf will live with me, if something doesn't happen, until he is 15-20 years old. So I might have him when I'm 40. That is a commitment. Thankfully I love him to pieces, but what if James hadn't liked him? What if I had found out chinchillas suck the souls out of babies? I had no idea. So thankfully again, I'm lucky I love the boo, but it could have been bad. He will live with me longer than my children will. Scary.

But like I said... luckily... I love the critter.

How could I not?















And yes I know this post fizzled at the end, but I am le tired. I don't feel like editing or saving and revising tomorrow. So enjoy pictures of The Boo and go back and reread the part where I insulted my old roommate.

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