the new roommates

So after a few examinations where John and I referenced no less than 3 sets of chinchilla anatomical photography, we figured out that the two surprise babies are a boy and a girl. John named them Tom Foolery and Palaver.

For those who don't know what palaver means (I didn't either), here's the thesaurus entry:

palaver "holy cow, what a palaver we caused in the girls' dormitory!" fuss, commotion, trouble, rigmarole, folderol; song and dance, performance, to-do, carrying-on, hoo-ha, hullabaloo, ballyhoo.

We had to DIY chicken wire to the outside of the cage because the babies can escape through even just an 1"x 1" hole. John woke up five times the other night to come out and find that they'd escaped the cage. Although chins are pretty smart, they never remembered how scared and cold they felt once they got on the outside. Each time, John would find them huddled together in the same spot in a very small space between some books, just inches away from the cage.