The Brain (Winnie): “The same thing we do every night, Pinky—try to take over the world.”

Ok, maybe not. After all, Winnie is too cute to play the character Brain.

ps: I hope it’s not just me who still remembers Pinky & The Brain, otherwise I feel old 0_o

pps: aren’t those rolls so cute?

Earlier this month, there was a birthday (not mine). I had 2 sculpted cakes custom ordered to look like none other than:

Tubby & Winnie!!!

This is the only time that the 2 of them can be seen next to each other ^.^

Not only that they look good, they taste good too! Tubby (the cake) is a chocolate rum cake with Swiss meringue icing, and Winnie is a chai tea cake with Italian meringue In real life, the Tubby cake is more realistic looking than the Winnie one. But I like Winnie’s pose better

As you can see, the Winnie cake is rich with icing (too rich for my taste).

Tubby was violated .. 4 separate times:

21st of October 2009

22nd of October 2009

1st of November 2009

5th of December 2009
Since I hadn’t cleaned Tubby’s penis in awhile, this fur ring is quite thick

A common problem in non-breeding male chinchillas is fur ring, which is when fur is caught inside the sheath of the penis making it uncomfortable for the chinchillas. I noticed that one day, as Tubby was cleaning himself, there was a black-looking thing around his penis. I suspected fur ring & in order to confirm my suspicion, I had to (literally) violate him: I had to hold him still, retract the sheath of his penis, & pull his penis out. I sure did find a thick fur ring (1st picture). It must have been super uncomfortable for Tubby.

The next day, I again noticed a black-looking thing around Tubby’s penis has he was cleaning himself. He wasn’t happy when I had to clean him again; fur was slipping everywhere as he was trying to escape my grip & by the end of it all, I was covered in grey fur. The second picture shows a dirty-looking fur ring because I had to use petroleum jelly. Just as male humans may need lubricants to prevent dryness, chinchillas do too (sorry to be candid, haha!).

After the second try, I did not want to bother Tubby anymore, for fearing that he may distrust me (chinchillas can easily distrust their owner, especially after experiencing two horrible, traumatizing incidents). I noticed that his penis was slightly red (the skin was probably raw from all that cleaning) & I wanted to give him a break .. which only lasted for a little over a week, when I had to clean Tubby for the third time (3rd picture).

Not all non-breeding male chinchillas have fur rings. For instance, I have never noticed fur ring on Winnie. And some chinchillas are just better than others in cleaning themselves, while some are hopeless & need help from their human companions. As the weather is getting colder, chinchillas’ fur are becoming thicker, so fur rings may be unavoidable.

The following third party video is a guide on how to remove chinchilla’s fur ring (except it doesn’t tell how to handle a super hyper chinchilla like Tubby).

Since I’m stingy & I don’t want these foods to run out too fast, these foods will only be treats & not part of the animals’ daily diet.

I like Marukan

Yep, the ever-so-sly Tubby created sharp threatening tools out of apple sticks just to get back at me, I’m sure. I’m scared .. that one of these nights he’ll escape from his cage and really attack me.

The chinchillas love dried strawberry leaves! They can’t eat the strawberries because they’re too wet (& may lead to diarrhea). Since I don’t have a dehydrator (which is on my wishlist), I wash the leaves clean and just air-dry them. I have a tupperware full of strawberry leaves that I picked from my garden. Hopefully that’ll last for awhile.

To see how the garden has progressed throughout the summer, see here.

Daddy Hamster (above) & Baby Hamster (below) enjoying freshly picked cilantro

To see how the garden has progressed throughout the summer, see here.

ps: the chinchillas also like cilantros, but they like them slightly crispy & dry.