The Most Expensive Chinchilla
A story about one of my chinchillas bought in 2001.
In August 2001 I had a journey from my home in the east central belt of Scotland to a well known breeder Paul Spooner who lives in Glossop, England. The journey down was both pleasant and uneventful. After choosing the chinchilla I wanted and agreeing a price, I had the usual long chat about breeding in general (as one does with fellow breeders) also picked up a few tips.
At 15.30pm we started our journey home. One hundred and three miles south of Edinburgh we left the motorway to join the A1 trunk road. There we met a tailback of traffic due to road works and were reduced to a crawl. The car slowly stopped! We had a breakdown. No problem we thought. We phoned the Automobile Association.
They did not have a clue where we were and said it would take a few hours to find us as we were in the middle of nowhere. Shortly after David spotted an AA van and flagged it down to explain to the driver what had happened. He wasn't the driver out looking for us bet he got on his radio to let them know where we were. then procceded to examine car. He looked at the engine and said it was bad news. the timing belt had broken and he could not repair it. He radioed for a low loader truck to come to take us home.
After the car had been uploaded, then my son Cameron in his car seat, plus the newbie chinchilla, the driver burst out laughing, saying it was a new experience for him to be transporting a chinchilla.
We were taken, with lights flashing (which baby son enjoyed) all the way to Edinburgh, off loaded on to another loader truck for the final journey home to Fife. We arrived home at 00.45 tired and weary after the marathon journey.
The journey down had taken five and a half hours, the journey home, nine and a quarter hours. We did not have to pay for the cost of transport, we were covered for that with our membership. However, the cost for repairing the car was £378, cost of petrol approx. £60. I have been breeding chinchillas for eleven years now and showing for ten, if I'd also had to pay for the tow also, I wonder. Could this have been the most expensive chinchilla ever? By the way, I renamed the chinchilla AA.
date of story 2001