It is delightful to be a Chinparent! Bijou is adorable, friendly, loving, cute, and smells like chocolate. The companionship animals bring to the table is quite valuable and beneficial. Studies show having an animal companion can increase your lifespan. Most animals that live in captivity have significantly longer lifespans when cared for by humans. Chinchillas are well known to live 8-10 years in the wild, but can live 10-20 years as a companion. Many animals have happy, healthy lives with people.
Bijou the Chinchilla
From time to time it may be challenging or frustrating to keep an animal. My advice (that I constantly remind myself of) is to be patient. Most of the time she doesn’t know any better. Bijou does a lot of little things that annoy me sometimes, like hop out of her habitat or launch herself off of an elevated surface (IE me) at an inappropriate time, or persistently attack baseboards or something else she shouldn’t go after. When I get fed up with something Bijou does I take a deep breath and think “she’s a baby,” and if that doesn’t work, “she’s just a rat.” It is imperative to remember that despite thousands of “domestication” cats still do whatever the heck they want. Any companion is still essentially a wild animal on some basic, instinctual level, and therefore prone to random (read stupid) actions. Forgive them. Move on.
Caring for something or someone can make your life and their life better. Just take what you know you know and try it. When you don’t know something, take a look around and find out everything you can about it. Self actualization and making things better for yourself and those around you begins with realizing that you make things possible: you can always make a situation better. You can always improve it. You have the responsibility of caring for precious fragile life, and the power of love.
Treat all of your companions, animal or human, with love and respect.
Benefits of Animal Companionship
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