Happy Endings ...

Santa Cruz Park

Trashcan Chin

We will never comprehend why someone would leave a live animal in a trashcan, but it happens. A female chinchilla was found in a trashcan at a BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station. Fortunately some kind person took her to the local animal shelter, at which point we were called to come get the animal. The poor little chinchilla that we named Felicia, was not in good shape. She had matted fur that was covering up some wounds. She could barely move and we were not sure why. X-rays revealed that she had two broken legs that had healed badly. With TLC and good food, Felicia regained some strength and weight and began to move around on her own. She was adopted by a kind family who did not mind that Felicia was never going to be fast and active chinchilla bouncing off the walls.

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The Chins With No Tails

We received a call for a local humane society saying that they had four chinchillas that needed to be picked up. The group consisted of a father, mother, and two young girls about 3 months old. The two young girls were missing 95% of their tails. When we picked them up, the chinchillas were so dirty that we didn't know what colors they were. We assumed they were all gray, but discovered that the father and one of the daughters were violets.

The father "DJ" was a small chinchilla, underweight. and with a partially bald tail. He was also in need of dental work. He was the first one to find a new home with a member of our group who is willing and able to address dental issues. As soon as his teeth were fixed, DJ started gaining weight. The hair on his tail started to regrow, once he was away from the rest of the family that were probably the ones chewing on DJ's tail hair.

The mother was such a sweet chin that she was given the name "Baby Face" by her foster human mother. She was a furchewer. She was pregnant when we got her and not long afterwards had two more babies, a boy and a girl, both of which "lost" most of their tails in the birthing process.

The two older daughters were given the names of Cello and Viola. One of them tested positive for Giardia and it took a couple months before we got the diarrhea under control. It is likely that other family members may also have had Giardia, but it was only a problem for Viola. Once Viola's diarrhea was gone, she and Cello were adopted together by a family that is very committed to helping animals in need. It has been almost a year, and unfortunately these two girls were returned to us just a few days ago due to changing circumstances with their adoptive family. I am sure we will be able to find them a wonderful and hopefully permanent home.

The youngest boy, who turned out to be blind, went to live with the people who had adopted the father. Although they had never lived together, the two seemed to know that they were family and there was an instant bond.

The last to be adopted were BabyFace and her youngest daughter. Happily, the two were adopted together by a very nice young woman. They have new names and a loving home.

So all of the chins were adopted to good homes and they are each paired with another family member! We get frequent reports on most of the family, so we know that they are all doing well.

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