Oh where oh where has my chinchilla gone

So we've been enjoying our new place with it's open spaces and I especially enjoy the fenced in backyard. Lately we have been grilling out several times a week and just enjoying the nice evenings outside as a family. He-man, our chinchilla, has been adapting to being outside and I let his cage opened while we eat and he runs around our chairs. Callan likes to chase He-man around and yell at him to come out of his cage. Callan has even started saying Him (for He-man). He-man also seems to like Callan and lets him walk over and pet him.

Tonight I was grilling some green beans and some pork and put Callan in his seat to eat while I grilled. He-man ran in and out of his cage while Callan watched him. I was running in and out of the house to get things to set the table so dinner was ready the moment Renee got home from tutoring.

Everything was going great. I had just taken the food off the grill and Renee called to give me the 20 minute, "I'll be home soon", call. So I went into final prep mode and decided to take the extra utensils up into the sink. Everything was set and I sat down to await Renee's arrival for a wonderful dinner. Then Callan gave me his customary "All done", so I went up to get a wash cloth to wipe off the strawberries from his hands, face, and ears.

When I came back, I wiped Callan's hands, and that's when I noticed...no He-man. I looked around our backyard and I even looked inside our house on the first floor because he had followed me in once already tonight. No He-man.

Then I went into panic-I-lost-my pet-just-when-my-son-learned-his-name mode. I went around the outside of the fence and around our first floor carrying Callan.

Renee pulled in and took Callan, while I continued to search the neighborhood. After about and hour and a half I asked Renee to make a "Lost Chinchilla" sign to hang up around the neighborhood. I hung those up, met some neighbors trying to describe what exactly a chinchilla looked like.

"It's like a fat squirrel"
"Oh like a hamster?"
"No it's about as big as a rabbit."

The conversations went on and on.

I asked the neighbor to check his back yard, but he didn't see He-man. I thanked him and continued my search casually looking in people's bushes and under the porches without having the cops called on me.

As it neared 3 hours, I decided to circumnavigate the neighborhood one last time and prayed that He-man would find his way back by morning. Sadly, as I entered our backyard, the search uncovered zilch. I did my clicking noise one last time to try to get him to come back and..................................................................................................... He-man popped out of a hole between the neighbor's fence and mine!!! Hooray for an answered prayer and for knowing where to patch a hole.

Hopefully this will be my last and only blog about an escaped chinchilla.