Nemo died very suddenly one night. He was happy, eating, and bouncing around his cage at 6pm Monday night. I checked in on him around 8:45pm and found him curled in a ball at the bottom of the ramp in his cage. He let me pick him up, which was a good sign he wasn't feeling well. I put him down outside his cage to see if he'd run around but he didn't, another sign he wasn't feeling well. After about an hour, I decided he needed to go to the vet. I knew he was dying and was torn between letting him die at home where it was warm and he was with the people he loved and who loved him or seek medicial attention. I wanted to make sure that a professional looked at him and that everything that could be done for him was done for him. The vet took him for overnight observation. I left around 10:45. She called around 11:30 to tell me he had died. He went from happy to dead in less than 5 hours and no one knows why. The poor little guy.

Name:	Nemo
Birthday:	January 18, 1999
Adopted:	June 18, 2000 (1.5 years old)
Age:	4.5 years old
Coloring:	Standard Grey
Likes:	Banana chips, dates, dried cranberries, dried apples
Dislikes:	Being picked up
Talents:	Barking
Motto:	You gonna finish that?
Pictures:	Go to Nemo's Chinchilla Cove
History:	Nemo was adopted from the Humane Society in Minnesota. His previous owner was allergic to him and had to give him up. When we first brought him home, he was nearly triple the size of our old chinchilla Mujibur. Nemo weighed well over a pound and a half. He has since slimmed down a bit to just over a pound. We gave him his name "Nemo" because I wanted something that said "big." Nemo just conveyed "girth" to me. For the first hour after we brought him home, he was "Sumo." Nemo taught us that although most chinchillas do not make vocal noises, he certainly can. Nemo has an aversion to being picked up. If you get too close to him without food in his hand, he will stand up on his hind legs and "bark" at you. Itıs a very nasty sound. It scared the beegeebies out of me the first time I heard it as I had never heard a vocal noise from a chinchilla before. Nemo is a good guy who likes to eat. Both he and Elsa are hand reared. They take dried fruits from my hand each morning. Although they would most certainly eat from a bowl, I like to hand feed them their breakfast. This way, they get a treat and interaction with me. I can also control how much they get, too. If I left dried fruits in their bowl, they'd probably eat just that instead of their kibble, which is much better for them. Nemo and Elsa are very good friends - but they're just that. Friends. We've had the pair for over three years now and still no babies. They like to sleep curled up together and don't like it when the other one is not in the cage with them (like a vet appointment). Elsa cut her foot one time and I had to take her out of the cage to examine her and clean off her wound. She was separated from Nemo for only 20 minutes but as soon as I returned her to their cage, Nemo ran over to her, nuzzled her, and sniffed and sniffed her.