The story of our first chinchilla

This year, in January, my husband and I went to the mountains. Where we were out with a sledge, a guy was offering pictures tot he tourists of themselves and his pet, guess what pet, a chinchilla! He was holding the chin under his coat that was half zipped and the little one was running on his sweter and under the jacket as if he was on a track.

I must have made a silly, childish face because the guy grabbed the chin and put him on my shoulder. The chin immediately started wondering on my back, came to my neck and tickeled me with his lovely full fur. That was it, a few seconds, and the chin won my heart!

Must have been an older chin because he was not in frenzy, running crazily and so fast that you couldn't catch him. It was also day time, so I guess that contributed too to his more mellow behaviour. I was not aware at that time that chins are nocturnal, that the chin must not have been a very happy one, being kept up in day time and in the arms and jacket of his owner and many curious tourists, like myself.

When we got home, I started researching the web, the forums about chinchillas. Nothing about taking care of them seemed hard. Not even the fact that they are nocturnal. No, not even the space the cage takes... the idea of rounded edges on the furniture with a chin design... no, didn't bother me at all, I just wanted a chinchilla. I knew chins are exotic pets so finding items for them was not going to be an easy task. From the web, to the stores... Asking for chinchilla cages, or even food brought a wondering look on the faces of the pet shop sellers. Asking for sand or dust to bath, they were offering me cat sand... What can I say, it was an adventure to find the needed items.

Now, having places I could go and buy food, cage and everything else, all I needed was a chinchilla. You figured by now there were no chins for sale in pet stores as the sellers gave me those "I have no clue" looks. It was time to find a breeder, yes, a fur breeder. As bad as it sounds, they are the only ones selling chins around here, rarely do they give chins for sale to pet shops. And from a breeder, you are pretty sure the blood line is good. 

I was lucky this time too, I managed to find a chin farm within like 50 miles. I called and the breeder was quite surprised to hear I would like just 1 baby chin, as a pet. But he understood my wish, he knew how cute the chins are and even offered to bring the little one to my city. Next weekend, on the 13th of March, our baby chin arrived home.