Hey everyone,

So I enjoy reading everyone's happy endings with the pets they'd adopted from here and since I've recently adopted a pet myself, I figured, Hey, now I have a reason to write my own E-Mail!

Most of the crew have probably already heard me talk about him, but I have yet to tire of it:

I saw Rascal the chinchilla at the beginning of this year and highly weighed the pros and cons. I've wanted a chinchilla for years but I haven't been able to keep an indoor pet at my parents' house. I've since moved out, but the dorms don't allow chinchillas any more than my parents would. But there was a ray of hope for me: my boyfriend had just moved into a new apartment. And believe it or not, it allowed pets.

I made sure it was all right with his landlord of course, and made sure it was okay with him if the chinchilla could stay with him for a few months until I move out of the dorms this summer. He said he was fine with it. I told him all he had to do was make sure he got fed and watered every day and maybe allowed a short run outside of the cage every now and then. It was only for a few months, I thought.

So I decided. On January 3rd, 2011, I bought him and then brought him to my boyfriend's and set everything up for him. Told him I'd pay for anything it would need. First thing I notice is that my boyfriend seemed to heed to the chinchilla's personal comfort wants than I had; I had to remind him several times not to give him too many treats. We came up with the new name, "Zippo," although the little guy still is quite the rascal.

Soon enough, I'm getting calls at 3:00 in the morning telling me how he was sorry to wake me "but I just had to call you! He jumped up onto my bed with me and came over and sniffed my nose!" He's now buying him all sorts of chinchilla treats made of Timothy hay so he can feed him treats all day long. He's bought him one of those chewable hideouts and flavored wood blocks and who knows what else? Of course, I offered to pay him for it, but "Oh no! It's nothing!"

Apparently Zippo slipped off his wooden ledge one day when his dad was over and he reported how my boyfriend was freaking out over him.

My boyfriend has even found "the spot," just behind his cheek where, if you scratch it, he'll cock his head to the side, close his eyes, and lift a paw into it. You can never scratch there for too long though, or he'll forget his balance and almost fall off whatever he's sitting on. I can't get over how cute it is.

I asked my boyfriend a couple of weeks ago to get pictures of him for me and when I didn't get any, I asked why: "Because he's like his daddy; he doesn't like his picture being taken."

So now, Zippo is getting kisses from "daddy" every day after he gets home from work and he's training him to only be able to go out of his cage if he's willing to hop up into his hand. Then he gets free range of his entire room and more treats for being good and just for being cute.

So much for being worried about him! Instead, I might have to be worried about taking him away from "his daddy" this summer! I just might have to get him his own chinchilla! So thanks, TCHS, for having chinchillas so adorable that not even a grown man can resist them available for adoption. Not only have I found the perfect pet, but I think I have the perfect man, too! Thanks, Milissa