Rodent Spotlight: Chinchilla

Today, I am going to begin with the fiction portion of the blog for a very special reason. Back in 2004, I was an amateur artist trying to make stories with cute little comics. One of those comics was based on a dream I had, and I called it "Animal Daycare." The idea was a group of baby animals meeting together at a daycare facility. There actually was not very much story to be found in these strips; however, the fun of it was found in the character known as Poncho.

Poncho was a baby chinchilla who was exceptionally nervous. He was prone to passing out if anything at all startled or upset him. When I first drew him, I did not know much about the creature he was inspired by. I winged it. Looking back, he really does not look very much like a real chinchilla; although, I think the tail is pretty close.

Now, here is where things get weird. Before I write these blogs, I always do a hefty bit of research into the species so that I can get my facts together. It may actually be the first time I truly sat down and researched the chinchilla. What I found made me very happy. As it turns out, I created Poncho's personality with accidental, yet flawless, precision.

Chinchillas are the very definition of timid. They are easily surprised and shocked, and they tend to be disturbed by anything that seems out of the ordinary. When they are especially stressed, they can go into convulsions for a brief time--this is similar to how Poncho would occasionally pass out. I can imagine a chinchilla enthusiast would have been impressed with how I designed him--even though I invented his personality entirely off of a dream. Maybe, I'm psychic!

The sad thing about Chinchillas is that the very thing that makes them cute is also something very bad. Their nervous natures are the reason they are very swiftly becoming extinct. It all has to do with an inability to cope with a very dangerous and cruel world. It also doesn't help that their fur is considered quite valuable. Chinchillas may be small but their fur grows out so long that that it makes each one of the poor little guys an easy target. I can't help but feel bad for them.

Later in my endeavors as an artist and writer, I teamed up with Coy Fields II and made two comic books entitled "Hollow Glen." For no reason whatsoever, I made Poncho a main character--a sheriff deputy no less. It was the same chinchilla from "Animal Daycare," but now we had a chance to expand on his character in some wonderful ways. He was still timid, he was still nervous, and he still passed out on cue; however, he now had a part in an amazing mystery in a very strange town. I do plan to continue that story someday, and I am sure I will have a fun time writing all the Poncho scenes more than any other. It is especially fun knowing he resembles the proper rodent so much. Rodents are often stereotyped as timid, but chinchillas will always be the real deal.

Thank you for reading this blog. If you enjoyed it, you can leave a comment below, or you can email me at tooie@tooiekangaroo.com. Also, you can read the Poncho comics by clicking the links below. Adiós!

-Poncho Comics-

Animal Daycare
Hollow Glenn Issue #1
Hollow Glenn Issue #2