Birth, Death, Living

It's my birthday today and it also marks 10 months under godpa's care. It's supposed to be a happy occasion but I feel sad coz godpa's sad today. Benji died this afternoon after struggling with sudden heavy breathing. He's a pink white chinchilla who has been with godpa for about 8 years. He started losing weight recently but godpa thought it might have been due to warmer temperature or his old age. I wonder whether I took up more attention from godpa so he did not monitor the chins as closely as he used to.

He took some videos of Benji as he lay in the cage. It's painful to see Benji that way as he used to bully the younger and smaller Rocky. He looked fine a few days ago. Now his thick fur concealed the boney and weak body underneath. Godpa felt it might be Benji's last breaths, yet he held some hope as he saw his eyes were still opened.

Godpa left Benji, Rocky, and me at home and put on a brave front to fulfil an earlier commitment to bring his parents out. He wanted to let them enjoy the nice Javanese food that he discovered recently. After dinner he even bought some Benebac and Nutripet bearing the little hope that Benji could recover with a boost to his digestive system and energy level.

Could godpa have rushed Benji to the vet? I bet he could, but from past experiences of two deaths (both were named Rocky), he knew it would mean more suffering, especially at his age. He wanted to let him be in familiar and comfortable surroundings. I know godpa would do what's best for me too. Recently a visiting relative found a tiny black tick around my neck, might be a single occurence but godpa quickly armed me with some non-pesticide preventive spray and Frontline spot-on which he'll be applying on me tomorrow night since I just bathed today. We're keeping our fingers and paws crossed that there are no more ticks attacking me.

Life is weird, shall we dance while we can?