Chinchillas

If you have known me for long, you have probably heard me talk about my obsession with chinchillas; however, few people know the origins this obsession. When I was in grade school, I never had a pet. Both my parents and my brother were allergic to animals, so having a pet didn't seem practical. However, I still really wanted a pet, so I began to research pets that did not cause allergies. The perfect solution I found at first was a hedgehog. Hedgehog's are relatively hypoallergenic, which means that they don't cause allergies. I brought the proposal to my parents, who seemed in favor of the idea. Unfortunately, further research revealed that pet hedgehogs were illegal in Pennsylvania. Apparently, in six different states, including Pennsylvania, it is illegal to own a pet hedgehog because of the fear of diseases. As you can expect, I was disappointed, and decided to continue my research.

In 4th grade, we were required to do a project where we research an animal and make a model habitat for that animal. I was still looking for pets that did not cause allergies, and I stumbled upon chinchillas. For those who don't know, chinchillas are small fluffy rodents who originate from the Andes (pictures are included at the bottom of this post). Chinchillas are not completely hypoallergenic, but they cause less allergies than most other fur animals. They also are reasonably easy to care for and make good pets. I brought this idea up with my parents, and they said they would consider it. Christmas of my fifth grade year, all that I got was a single envelope. Inside, there was an IOU note from my parents that said  they would buy a chinchilla of my choice along with the necessary cage, bedding, and anything else the small rodent would need. I was overjoyed, and I dragged my parents with me to Petco to buy a chinchilla. The only chinchilla they had at the time was a young female. She was three months old, which for chinchillas is very young, and she was also a Sapphire chinchilla, which meant that her fur was black and she was worth a lot more money. I convinced my parents that she was the one, and brought her home. I spent hours pondering over what would be a perfect name for a female chinchilla. In the end, I decided on Priscilla, or as my brother and I named her, Princess Priscilla the Chinchilla of Doom. Priscilla was not the perfect pet. She was young, which meant that she did not like being held, enjoyed avoiding me or my parents when we tried to pick her up, and barked at me when she was angry. Even so, to me, as a 10 year old boy who had never before had a pet, she was perfect, and I was content.

A month later, in early February of the next year, I woke up on a regular morning, and prepared to go to school. As I walked by Priscilla's cage, I noticed that she was drooped on her second shelf not moving. I assumed she was probably just asleep, so I opened the cage to scratch her ears. However, even as I reached in to pet her, she still didn't show any sign of moving besides opening her eyes. At this point, I was beginning to get a little freaked out, so I tried to cheer her up by giving her cheerios (her favorite) and letting her run around, she still did not show any energy. I was already late for school, so my dad promised to bring her to a vet while my mom raced me to school. I spent the entire day worried, until during lunch the dreaded call came. I knew as soon as the teacher called me over to the phone what had happened. Three weeks after Priscilla had become part of my life, she had passed away. The vet tried everything, but said that it was a disease that she probably contracted in the pet store or on the Petco truck because she was so young. I was heart broken, and I spent the next hour trying to keep back the tears. Sure, Priscilla was only a chinchilla, but for me to lose her was still hard. A few days later my dad called the pet store, and they said they were getting two more chinchillas the next day, and I could have one of them. However, one of the chinchillas supposedly died on the truck and the other died soon after arriving at the store. As you might expect, my family and I lost all faith in Petco, and decided to try to find a local breeder.

In our search for a local breeder, we came across a lady named Mish who bred chinchillas in her apartment and owned dozens of chinchillas, rats, and cats (her day job was working as a waitress at the college cafeteria). We went to visit her, and she said she had the perfect chinchilla for us. He was old, already six years old, which meant he would be less susceptible to diseases. Chinchillas can live for up to twenty years, so he would be around for a while. He was a standard gray color, and only $50 (compared to Priscilla who was $190). She showed him to me, and he was so calm; he just sat in my arms. Later that week, we bought him and brought him back to our house. For the first week of staying in our house, he refused to let us get close to him, and would start biting and barking if we even walked by his cage. But eventually he calmed down, and unlike Priscilla, he actually enjoyed being held, even by an inexperienced chinchilla holder like myself. Bud was the perfect pet: not demanding, but still loving. Bud has stayed with me six years, and even moved from Pennsylvania to Illinois with me (My brother had to drive him for twelve hours because we didn't want him to have to fly). He did have one scary incident during my Freshman year, which included a long visit to a vet, the surgical removal of a tooth, and two months of me force-feeding him antibiotics every morning, but he survived it all. He is still strong and healthy at the age of twelve (almost thirteen), and hopefully he will be with my family for many years.