:: living in relative obscurity ::

score: Deb 1, Duster 0

Chinchillas, like most pets, love to escape. Mine are no exception. They're also fast as hell and near impossible to catch (Jamey once chased Duster around the apartment for two hours before he caught him).

On Sunday, I was "hand-training" Duster--basically, trying to get him more comfortable sitting in my hands (chinchillas are not huggable, they dislike sitting still and squirm if you hold them too long). Suddenly, he bounded up my arm and perched on my shoulder--where he stood for two full minutes. Duster has this "king of the hill" mentality where he'll sit on the highest thing he can and just gaze around at his little empire; either that or he was trying to watch the playoff game down the hallway. Since he was out of my line of sight, I was hesitant to move around much, b/c he'll startle, race down my back and into another adventure.

Eventually, after watching a Colts touchdown (glad one of us could see it), he hopped over to my right shoulder. I decided to crane my right hand up behind me to see if he would hop on. I hunched my back enough to slide him into my hand, and very sloooowly curled my arm back around my side... and back into the cage! He seemed stunned by the sudden shift of advantage, b/c he turned to face me and started squeaking. After I did a little victory dance, he still got a treat, to soothe his bruised ego ;)

Labels: pets

posted by deb @ 2:47 PM