Conference misery::feline

190.0. "CHINCHILLAS and CATS" by LARVAE::GEORGE_E (SECRETARIES DO IT ALL-IN-1) Wed Feb 12 1992 09:03

Hi,

I'm a reader rather than a writer of FELINE NOTES, but I just wanted to 
share my experiences of my 3 cats and chinchilla.  

Alfie (my chin.) is a small lovable bundle of mischief.  He is about 1 
year old, grey fur and has just got over the moulting stage and looks 
gorgeous now. His favourite food is sunflower seeds, carrots, toast (with 
marmalade), and he goes potty over Strawberry Ribena.  He sleeps most of 
the time, but we let him out of his cage in the lounge every evening for 
a run.  When he is out he will jump onto my husband's lap and my husband 
will tickle him under the chin and behind the ears.  The look of absolute 
bliss on Alfie's face has to be seen!!

Before we open the cage, we have to lock the cat flap.  We found out the 
hard way about locking it, as we came down to breakfast one morning and 
found the cage door slightly open and no sign of Alfie.  We searched the 
house from top to bottom with no luck.  Knowing that he sleeps during the 
day, we hoped that he would put in an appearance in the evening - no such 
luck.  I was very worried and couldn't put my mind to the game of RISK 
that we were playing when suddenly, at 10.00pm, my daughter shouted 
"there he is".  He was casually walking across the patio behind the 
house.  Two of us flew out of the front door, my daughter and I (cage top 
in hand), flew out the back and we collared the little b****** round the 
side of the house.  The screams and yells of delight, were something to 
hear.  Anyhow back to the present... 

Time: evening - At this point we have a 20 year old British Blue (Bear) 
and a 2 year old black and white moggy (Bandit) curled up as close as 
they can get together (they really are in love), on one chair.  And on 
another chair is my favourite, an 8 year old black moggie called Dropje 
(Dutch for licorice).  Alfie is tearing hell for leather back and 
forwards in the lounge.  Bandit has decided that the evening's fun has 
started.  She leaps down and starts chasing Alfie, he runs and hides 
under the bookcase, she puts a paw under to get him out, so he does - 
right under her.  She jumps a mile in the air and starts chasing him 
again.  He evades her and dashes under a chair, she pokes her nose in and 
Alfie starts to "attack" her and chases her all over the lounge.  Dropje 
just ignores all this going on, but Bear climbs sedately down from the 
chair, at which point Alfie, who was relatively near, sees this rather 
large chinchilla (Bear has grey fur too) and decides to go for a ride on 
his back.  He clinges on and has a nibble for good measure.  Bear does 
not seem to mind very much until Alfie has a nibble at his ears, then it 
is a growl and a shake of the head and Alfie is off and running again.  
The games they all play together is marvellous to watch and has us in 
hysterics.

Has anyone else got a chinchillas and cats?  Can anyone give me a pointer 
to a NOTES file for chinchillas if there is one?



Elly

from_across_the_water_in_wet_and_windy_Basingstoke







    

    Hi Elly,
    
         Sounds like fun at your place 8-) !!!
    
         There isn't a specific file for chins, but there is a file for
    small animals at WAYWRD::SMALL_ANIMALS.  You might want to try that.
    
    					- Andrea

    
    Elly,
      What an entertaining note! You certainly have alot to watch in the 
    evenings at your house. Better than T.V.! Write again and tell us more.
    
    b.r.
    

    Re .1
    
    Thanks Andrea, I found SMALL_ANIMALS Notes file.  Not really a lot in
    there.  Last night Alfie found another favourite food - Paul Newman's
    salted popcorn.  He kept climbing into the bowl, helping himself - but
    not eating all of it, so there was bits of popcorn scattered all over
    the lounge.  The cats of course turned their noses up at it.
    
    
    TTFN
    
    Elly
    

    OOOHHHHH...I want one!!  When we were waiting in the waiting room
    at Tufts Hospital there was this man with a Chinchilla.   What I
    was totally amazed at was he was not in a cage...but just sitting
    on this man's shoulder.   There were dogs/cats everywhere...but
    the Chinchilla had no fear and looked very content.  He was so
    CUTE!!
    
    Please continue to share stories...
    
    Sandy  

    Don't have a chinchilla but my daughter has a full grown Alexandrine
    (sp) parrot who loves my two cats... now they are not sure about him. 
    When he's visiting with her he spends most of his time on her shoulder
    (yes, her shirts are usually a mess).  We put his cage in a spare
    bedroom and we call it "Alex's Room.. his name is Alex, by the way.
    We keep the door shut when he's in there as we also leave cage open so
    he can get out on top.. Well, we couldn't figure out why the cats were
    sitting just outside the door.  This went on for several visits until I
    caught him.  He was "Meowing" just like they do and they thought
    another cat was in the room.. Later, he "meowed" when they could see
    him and it was so funny, how they looked at him.  He's gorgeous emerald
    green with a deep magenta ring around his neck, bright orange beak..