By Elizabeth Graeme

Hi! Recently I have been living in Moldova and I have felt a little lonely since the move. So, I asked my parents for a pet! Originally, I wanted a baby duck, but after weeks of trying to find some without any luck, we decided to look for a different pet. So, we went to a pet store. Mommy said a hamster or another guinea pig would be a good choice … but then I saw HIM, a cute gray fluffy chinchilla and we just had a special connection right away! Daddy said chinchillas are normally very expensive, but here they were really cheap, so he agreed to let me bring him home.

I named him Clem Chowda’ (kind of like clam chowder, but not quite!) He’s an energetic butterball and loves playing, but only at certain times: in the very early morning and late at night, they’re something called crepuscular. Because they sleep most of the day it makes it hard to play with him.

Fun fact, they are rodents and can squeeze into tiny spots … like the small hole that was in the back of our toilet, I didn’t even know toilets were hollow, but some are! We had to call a plumber to remove it from the floor and rescue him. Another time he jumped out of my hands and got loose in the room and I had to chase him for an hour to catch him again. There’s nothing they hate more than being chased, it ruined our friendship. Chinchillas have to be trained to be tame, and they will only play with you if they trust you. After I chased him, I had to earn his trust all over again.

Now he likes to jump all over me, he loves to play! Another thing he loves is his dust bath, it’s so cute to watch him roll around in it! A dust bath would make me dirty, but it’s how he cleans his really soft fur. Chinchillas can’t get wet, because their coats are so dense it’s difficult to dry, water could cause them to get a fur fungus.

Chinchillas are a lot of work, a lot more than I realized, but they’re also super cute and really fun.