Back in 1991 I had two lovely chinchillas – Gizmo and Madam. Both standard greys. Gizmo was my original chinchilla and Madam was bought from a breeder to be his companion. Well they had other ideas and did not get along!!

During 1992, the following year, a work colleague had told me that her cousin had an adult male
chinchilla for sale and I thought about buying him as a companion for Madam, as Gizmo had made it clear he was not interested in sharing his cage. So I agreed to take a look at him.

When I first saw the chinchilla it was love at first sight. He was in a dirty and smelly tiny cage and clearly needed a bit of TLC, but he was stunning – the most gorgeous cream colour.

In 1992 I was still living at my parent’s house, so I brought him home and spent a lot of time cleaning up the cage and ensuring he was cleaned up (lots of clean sandbaths) and well-nourished. He
blossomed, but was never keen on being handled. He was duly christened Fraggle.

I used to let all three chinchillas out for runs together in my bedroom (supervised of course) and
Fraggle and Gizmo pretty much ignored each other. Unfortunately for my father, they did not ignore the wallpaper and skirting boards, and they wrecked my bedroom, which needed re-decorating when I left home. They had a great time during that year and were all thoroughly spoilt.

During the August Fizz was conceived as Fraggle and Madam decided they did rather like each
other. Fizz, Fraggle’s son, was born in December 1992 and I was thrilled beyond belief.

Fraggle was featured in the CFPNP magazine (a chinchilla club publication) in the Autumn and Winter of 1993 and by this stage I had left home, and taken the chinchillas with me to a flat I shared with friends. I was writing a Chinchilla help and advice page for the CFPNP Magazine too.