These were the best few months; I remember meeting my chinchilla for the first time and the next few months that followed. First of all I will explain what a chinchilla is a chinchilla is a mix between a mouse and a squirrel. It has a scrunched face and a big fluffy tail. It is a nocturnal animal and can see in the dark. It can also overheat if it does too much. My sister thought thst I needed something that showed me to have responsibility. It was around 3:00 am on a Saturday morning and my sister came into the house I was still asleep. My sister woke me up just so I could meet Bentley my new pet chinchilla. It was really dark and I couldn’t see him all that well but I knew he was there because I could see my reflection in his glassy eyes.

My sister said “say hello to your new pet Bentley” I went to pet him and when I did he felt like a puff ball. After that I fell back to sleep when I woke up I thought it was all a dream until I heard a rattling noise. I sat up to see Bentley running on his wheel like a child on a sugar rush. I jumped out of bed and ran over to the cage and I must have watched him for about an hour. He was small, he had grey on his back and white on his belly, and his paws were red underneath. He was very jumpy and was running around his cage I asked my sister how to do the basics like how to feed him and take care of him.

“You need to give him a handful of hay and two handfuls of pellets.” She said

“Ok so like this?” as I scooped a handful of pellets and they felt like wood pellets you put in a fire place.

“How do you clean him?” I asked.

With this she handed me a big jar and it was full of some weird grey dust I touched it and it was very dry. She handed me a pink plastic house which is where you put a scoop of dust so the chinchilla can roll in it. It was really adorable seeing this puff ball rolling in the dust

My sister told me “He can’t get wet at all.”

“Why” I asked

“Because if he does he will lose his fur and get an infection which will make him very sick he could even die.”

This scared me because I was afraid that someone might get water on him and he would get sick from it. After a little while I started to get the hang of doing everything like feeding him and cleaning his cage. But one day I left the door open to the cage and he got out while I was at school. My brother and his friend got home before I did and when I was in the car my mom got a phone call it was my brother.

“BENTLEY GOT OUT!!!!” he screamed

I got really scared and thought I had lost him I asked if he had gotten lost but my brother said he was hiding under the chair and that he needed me to get home so he would come out. When I got home I walked into the living room and saw Bentley underneath the chair all I did was kneel down and said his name he walked out and climbed up my leg and into my arms he must have been scared because of all the loud noise my brother made that was why he didn’t come out when he tried.

“How did you do that?” asked my brother’s friend

“He just likes me a lot” I replied

Then I brought him onto the couch and put him next to me and he ran around and hopped over my legs he must have been ok after that because he wasn’t shaking and he was running around.

After that he really didn’t get out after that so when I let him out he would just walk around and not try to run. He and I must have bonded because he won’t let anyone pick him up except me but if they do he just jumps out of their arms and hop into mine. Still today he is healthy and is very energetic he is happy and very fun. This is the first time I met my chinchilla and a few months after getting him and how difficult it was to take care of him.