Monday 15 August 2016

Chinchilla Time

I'm sure you've all heard of animals who are able to pose as therapeutic assistants to humans - the normal situation usually includes a horse or a dog. While I do not argue that horses, dogs, cats and your other usual choices are incredibly cute and can be very helpful, my kind of anxiety tends to be curbed by an animal who is just about as anxious about life as I am.

 Meet Lenny. 

Lenny has been my partner in anxious crime for 6 months. He is 8 months old and loves to sit on shoulders, but heaven help you if you attempt to grab him. Don't let his cute and fuzzy exterior fool you, he goes from fluffy and sweet to rabid and hissing within a second of being irritated. (The similarity between him and I in personality are uncanny at times). His diet consists of huge amounts of timothy hay and a hand full of pellets every day - along with the occasional oats and goji berry. He is of the nocturnal variety and is not to be disturbed during the day. His hobbies include scaling the cage walls, sitting in his hammocks, and chewing the wooden ledges upon which he is sitting until they are virtually non-existent and he plummets down to meet his certain death squishy fleece floor. 


Although Chinchillas have the sort of temperament that represent an extremely paranoid, feline character, they are loving and rewarding in every sense of the word when they nuzzle up to your face after a long day or let you hold them without sinking their front two wood-eating teeth into your finger *winning*.

In short, watching Lenny running around, getting up to his daily (and nightly) activities takes the mind off of one's impending doom. And that's always a plus. You'll be sure to hear about, and see more of him. 

3 comments:

Glad to see you have your love goggles on! You go Glen-Coco :D