[monalisa]

I had a chinchilla, his name was Yoda. He's no longer with us, but he was adorable. They tend to be not very sociable unless you handle them a lot. You have to buy "chinchilla dust", which if I remember correctly is something that is like the dust in the area they naturally live in, and I think it was some kind of vocanic ash. they have to roll in it to keep their coat clean and soft, otherwise it gets too oily. Unfortunately, I found out after I got him, that I was allergic to the dust. Anyway, you have to be kind of careful with them, they can actually have heart attacks if frightened too badly. And if your water has red algae in it, it can kill them. I think that's what killed mine when I moved into a new place years ago, actually, the place I still live in.