Teri Diaz & ChillaGirl Write!: September 2011

Sylvia Blogs!

Hi, everybody! I’m Sylvia Chilla, and this is my blog. I bet you’ve never read a blog written by a chinchilla before! Well, chillas like to write just as much as any other small animal. Except maybe rats…they don’t care for writing too much. And raccoons are too busy washing up to write….

Anyway, here goes….

The other day I had ever so much fun! I went to my very first Chilla Scouts Day. I went just knowing my cousins Willow and Meadow, but by the time I left, I made so many great new friends! Violets is now my very best chilla friend, and she lives sort of near Willow and Meadow in Chilla Hills. So when I go to visit them, I can visit Violets too. She’s quiet but super smart (she likes to read, like all the time).

I also made friends with Kassie, who is really really good at sports, and the best jumper ever! She jumped halfway up a tree to get a yucky big mushroom. But you’ll have to read my story to find out about THAT!

Andee and Brandee are twins, and they are brown, not silver like me and Violets and Willow and Meadow. They are so funny and so nice. I like them a lot.

Vanessa is the most fantastic dancer ever! She is so pretty and wears shiny bows on her ears. She helped me jump off the really really really REALLY high dive. She’s the best!

We all went on a scavenger hunt with Phoebe, who was our Chilla Scouts Leader. She’s super nice too.

Well, that’s it for today. The sun’s starting to come up, and my fingers are getting tired. Momma says I shouldn’t write too much or my fingers will get all crampy and I won’t be able to draw. And I LOOOOVE to draw LOL.

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The "Real" Sylvia

Sylvia is a beautiful seven year old silver chinchilla. She’s very smart and somewhat tame. She’ll hold paws with you, and let you rub her between her ears or under her chin. And when she’s out hopping about the room, she’ll hop onto your leg and sit awhile.

I just became so intrigued with her. Chinchillas are extremely interesting animals. That’s probably why they’re classified as “exotic” pets. They’re partially nocturnal, they can’t get wet (they take “baths” in volcanic dust), their teeth continually grow, and they have no scent or sweat glands.

My demented self would imagine Sylvia dressed up in a little Scouts uniform, selling Chilla Cookies door to door. Or in a little Chilla Suit, cannonballing into a dust bath. My imagination just rocks this way!

One day, I sat down and just started writing. I can picture it all in my head, and I try to write so the reader can too. Check back for Sylvia's blog entries!

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Little Known Facts about Me:

I was a world-class swimmer.

I am terrified of spiders, and can’t sleep if one is “at large”.

I lurve coffee. Coffee coffee coffee...

I once dropped a steak knife which poked right into my foot and necessitated a trip to the emergency room.

I love birds and cats. But I can’t have both, for obvious reasons.

I hate liver, and have been known to both toss it under radiators and stuff it into an envelope to send to the poor starving children in China.

When I was little, I would sit inside a bush and sing “I’m a lonely little petunia in an onion patch”.

I hate monkeys wearing clothes, and monkeys that talk. I especially hate monkeys that do both.

I have claustrophobia. And motion sickness. Blech!

I thought the expression “Dog eat dog” was “doggie dog” and “guerillas” were “gorillas”. Oh, and “Euthanasia” was “Youth in Asia”.

I am both naïve and a klutz.

I make up weird names for things such as: a big tub of popcorn is a Popcorn Prairie Dog.

I am the middle child in a family of eight children.

I love SEEING things! I can see the same thing a million times, and can always see the wonder in it as if it were the first time. I call it “making my eyes happy”

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How Sylvia Chilla Came to be...

I guess my Sylvia Chilla stories come from two sources. First off, our family had a Maine Coon kitten. Like a doting grandma, I wanted to dress her up in cute clothes. It started off innocently enough: a little jack o’lantern cap and matching ruff. Boy, did she look disgruntled! Next was a little Santa hat and beard. Cute cute cute.

After that, my husband Mark had to steer me away from pet clothes, teddy bear clothes, doll clothes, baby clothes. . Question: do they make bikinis for cats? If so, I want one. Now.

My second source was Sylvia herself. Yes, Sylvia is a real chinchilla, our pet. She is so unusual, super-smart and loving, and I found myself imagining her dressed in a little Scouts uniform, in a bathing suit, wearing a cloche hat, a jeans skirt, pj’s. . . going to school, on trips, having adventures. . .

And so Sylvia’s Chinchilla-rific Adventures were born. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy creating them.

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This blog is all about my writing journey….

Today I’m working on organization—getting the blog moving forward, mainly… This is sure a lot more fun than my business website. This is ME, you know? This is me, being me.

I guess it’s also a lot scarier too. It’s so personal, so close to who I am. What if you don’t like me or like my work? What then? Do I just pick myself up, dust myself off, and continue on?

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