with Sasparilla the Chinchilla
Sasparilla G. Chinchilla
(a.k.a. Mr. Parilla, Sassy P., Chillaboy, Little Buddy)
Standard grey male, born 15 August 2000.
Photos are in rough chronological order.
Yes, he was once this fuzzy. He no longer is, as you’ll see in the following photos. Why? Well, we’re not exactly sure. But we can more or less pinpoint the time he became a fur-biter (meaning he barbers his fur with his teeth) to around the time we moved into an old bungalow in the country. Perhaps it was the stress of that move that caused him to start doing it. However, we’ve moved twice since then and he’s seemed to adjust fine to each new place, so it could have been something else that started the habit. After vet visits giving him a clean bill of health and four years of us doing everything we can think of to remove potential stressors in his life, we’ve concluded that maybe he just gets lonely and bored. We’ve always thought Sasparilla has above-average intelligence, and since he seems to do most of his barbering after we go to bed, we’ve begun to leave the radio on (at a reasonable volume, set to an NPR jazz station) during the night. We’re hoping it’s enough of a distraction to lessen his urge to chew his fur so much. Our fingers are crossed.