Emo Update

Emo's gaining weight! Woo-hoo!!! He's now up to 1.8 ounces. He was 1.9 ounces before surgery and the goal is to get him to gain even more weight. He's being friendlier and more affectionate. Maybe he was moody and cranky because he was hungry. Haha! It's nice to have my chinchilla back. He tried to groom me a little bit last night. That's one step closer to the chirping and tail wagging!

Poor Lil' Bugger!

My little chinchilla cannoli:

My little bugger had dental surgery about 2 1/2 weeks ago. Since then he just hasn't been interested in food. Not exactly sure what unit of measurement my vet uses, but he weighed about 5 before the surgery. This past Friday he weighed in at 4.4. (I think she said she used grams, but for some reason I'm confused as what exactly is going on.) If chinchillas lose too much weight they can develop fatty liver disease. Yikes! So I've been syringe feeding him strawberry apple sauce 2 - 3 times a day. Suffice it to say, he is NOT a fan. He's been fighting me by struggling, scratching, whimpering, cowering, and overall just being a HUGE drama queen. What can I say? He's emo!

Not sure if you can see, but these are my battle wounds from him:

Hence, the whole cannoli ruse. He's bundled up so tightly that he's restrained from any type of struggling, which unfortunately, makes him more vocal. He's also been behaving like a rebellious teenager. He knows that he's not supposed to chew on the walls - he's doing it, especially after I tell him not to do it, he's going places where he's not supposed to go ... When I go to grab him or physically stop him from misbehaving, he starts to snip and make protest sounds. I even had a stare-down with him to re-establish who was in charge.

Clearly I torture my pet. He has a rough life.

I miss the days when he used to chirp happily and wag his tail.

Happy Nov. 1st!

Hope everyone had a great Halloween and that none of you felt like this this morning:

(My friend's cat, Nancy. That is how she sleeps. Face plant!)

Underwear

Another chinchilla story:

Sometimes I'll let the chinchilla run around the bathroom while I take a shower. I guess I consider this multi-tasking because Emo needs time every night to run around outside his cage. This one night, I was getting undressed and accidentally dropped my underwear. It landed right on top of Emo's head, who unsuccessfully tried to pull it off. Unfortunately, the chinchilla managed to get himself tangled in it and promptly began to run around the bathroom in a panic. It seemed like his inner dialogue was:

"It won't go away! Maybe if I run away from it while wearing it, it'll go away!!!"

Luckily I was quickly able to untangle him from my underwear before my already traumatized chinchilla could pass out from fear. He instantly jumped into my arms and burrowed his head in the crook of my elbow. Chinchillas will hide their heads when they're nervous or scared. He was so cute!

Couldn't help but feel sorry for the little guy, though! Poor Emo! Got scared by a pair of panties tangled on his head.

Heads/Tails

Piece of candy for anyone who can find the chinchilla!

Truckin' Along

There's honestly not too many exciting things to report on at the moment. I've started to get auditions through my agent, which is good. Now just have to book something. Still working at the restaurant and hating people and their over-the-top requests. Trying to start booking things so I can stop working at the restaurant. Just truckin' along ...

So somewhat pathetically, the main consistent pleasure in my life has been the chinchilla. He's up when I get home from the restaurant and ready to play. I have to say, I've discovered that chinchillas can't see very well with light. So instances where I previously thought my chinchilla was dumb, I've now realized that he was just blind! I mentioned that he would run into walls and then stare at the wall, bewildered that it was there. Well, I'd be surprised too to run into a wall if I couldn't see it in the first place!

Another sign that the chinchilla is not dumb: I've potty trained him. I have no idea how! But he knows I don't like it when he pees on the floor or carpet. He'll only pee in his cage or on cardboard. Dumb animals don't usually understand potty training - at least in my mind!

Third sign that the chinchilla isn't dumb: He's learning how to play fetch! That's when I noticed that he can't see. I tossed a treat to the other side of the room. Emo followed it via a zig zag trail, which led me to believe he was following the treat's scent.

Oh, pets. I will say, Emo is a very happy chinchilla! That's just a gut feeling, but he's always excited to see me when I get home. Either that or he knows I'm the one with the treats! Haha!

I'm a Matchmaker!

This is the Fleece Buddy.

Fleece Buddy, meet Emo, the emo chinchilla.

1:56am: Love connection is consummated.

WEIRD!!!!

Twitterpated!

For the past couple of nights my chinchilla has been wagging his tail and chirping at me. I finally looked it up on the internet and apparently he's been doing a mating dance. He's been flirting with me!

Someone actually said, "Be careful because they will do the deed to your arm if you let them!" A recommendation is to get Emo a fleece buddy, which is a stuffed fleece toy to let him play with or "do", if you will.

I find this whole situation extremely amusing.

Rodent!

This is Emo, my new pet chinchilla.

I've had him for about 2 1/2 months now. I didn't write about him before because I was just being lazy, had other stuff going on, etc. But yes, this little guy is my friend in my lonely one bedroom apt.

This is Emo, being all emo and melancholy because he jumped in the bathtub, which unfortunately for him, was filled with water. He got drenched! Hee hee!

I try to play with him a little every night. This is usually what happens after running around for about an hour straight. Knocked out!

He's turning out to be pretty affectionate, but he's pretty dumb. He has a wheel to run on for exercise, but prefers to use it as a swing. He's a creature of habit so when things change, he doesn't look before he leaps - both figuratively and literally. Thus, explains how he ended up jumping in a bathtub filled with water. Chinchillas like to jump and run around. Sometimes he'll run and jump straight into a wall. When he lands back onto the floor he'll stare at the wall stunned, like he's surprised to find that there's a wall in his path. Watching his antics kill my brain cells sometimes because he's just not the brightest light bulb in the box - but he's my boy!

Thankfully, the horrible horrible stress cramps have mostly subsided. I have put myself on a vitamin regiment of D3, Magnesium, and Vitamin B. Place emphasis on Vitamin B, which is the vitamin that monitors the intestines. I also have been trying to alter my mental state and have been working on not getting upset over little things to eliminate my stress level. So far, its been working, except for when I go to work. That's the only place where I start to feel any type of cramping. I'm seriously hoping I will see a light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to my serving "career".

As far as the acting career goes, things are moving along. Steady, but slowly. I've been focusing on a lot of personal promotional/advertising regarding various projects I have been doing, and doing a lot of classes/workshops for exposure. The next task is to figure out how to get more auditions so the chances of me booking an actual gig will increase. Yup, getting new headshots - AGAIN! The headshots are never ending. Hopefully these new images will be more intriguing and interesting to casting directors to make them want to call me in, and will hopefully represent me and my personality better.

Regarding the boyfriend: It seems things in his life are quieting down a little - at least enough for him to mentally have room to consider taking a mini vacation (with me!), or wanting to find time to visit me at my restaurant job! Hey, my relationship has been difficult. Cancer and family deaths have pretty much deprived me from being able to have a functioning boyfriend/relationship. I count the baby steps!

So I will end this post declaring that I am still truckin' along. Still in transition. Can't wait for another breakthrough.