We have a zoo at our house.  Two cats, two dogs, a guinea pig and three of these:

Chinchillas.

We have two girls and a boy.  This one is Pippi.  They are funny little creatures that beg for raisins and banana chips.

They act like prisoners.  They seem to be missing the little cup to bang against the bars.

They are soft guys who unfortunately are a bit shy when it comes to holding them.  They get scared and start losing huge tufts of fur.  Pippi and JJ are better than Sadie.  (The kids have named them all.)

Like gremlins, you can’t get them wet.  They could get sick and die.  So you give them dust baths instead. 

And, as we have found out in the past, you shouldn’t let them out if you have dogs and cats.  While they are extremely fast, they aren’t always fast enough.  Let’s just say that last summer, we had four chinchillas.  It was a hard lesson for Indigo, but the cages stay closed now.


(Pippi is the Chinchilla pictured.  The others were being shy and hiding.)