Read Nacho's book

Nacho is a grey chinchilla in Groningen who loves raisins and the curtain hem. His book has the shelf he climbs three times, the petunias, and the hairdryer heard through the door. An example. 4 photos, the answers to the questions, about ten minutes. Yours is made the same way.

• 

  Nacho
• 

  Nacho

  2019

  Nacho

• Nacho

  2019

  For Nacho, who sleeps where he pleases.

  Nacho1

  Breed

  Chinchilla, grey

  Born

  2019

  Lives with

  Femke and Rick, Groningen

  Loves

  Raisins, the curtain hem

  Fears

  The hairdryer

  Not allowed on

  The balcony

  Nacho2

• Ten at night, and the flat wakes up.

  Nacho3

  The Shelf, Three Times

  For Femke and Rick, the day ends at seven and starts again at ten, when Nacho does. He jumps from the shelf to the top shelf, three times, always three, and then it goes quiet. They lie in the dark and listen for it. Rick says he is laughing at them. Nobody has a better explanation.

  Nacho4

• Not What It Is For

  The hammock in the cage has never been used. Nacho sleeps in the tray of bathing sand instead, which is not what it is for. Femke and Rick change the sand every week, and every week he watches them do it, then looks at them as if they sold his bed. The hammock hangs there, empty, doing nothing.

  Nacho5

  

  Nacho6
• 

  On my hand, in my mother's garden. He is looking at the petunias.

  Nacho7

  Into the Petunias

  In Femke's mother's garden, Nacho jumped off her hand into the petunias and sat there as if he had always lived there. Femke's mother got him out with a raisin. He came for the raisin, not for her. He stayed with her for two weeks that July, in Haren, ten minutes away, while Femke and Rick were in Portugal. She took him into the garden every afternoon, on her hand. They never dared.

  Nacho8

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  Nacho9

  

  Nacho10

• The Drawer Slides Open

  The sound that brings Nacho running is the drawer with the raisins sliding open. The vet says one raisin a day. He hears the drawer and is at the little door before it is even shut, and Rick gives him two when Femke isn't looking. She said one. Rick said the vet had said about one. Now the drawer has a note on it in her handwriting, and Nacho still gets two on Saturdays.

  Nacho11

  The vet said 'about one.'

  Nacho12

• What He Gets Away With

  • The curtain hem, one side only
  • A sniff, then one nibble, every evening
  • Off to the other side after

  Nacho13

  The Other Side Is Next

  Nacho gets away with the hem of the curtains, on one side. Femke and Rick shortened them, twice now, and each time he simply moves his attention. Every evening he checks the same corner, a sniff and one nibble, then off to the other side. The other side is next. They both know it. The curtains keep getting shorter.

  Nacho14

• Who Nacho Belongs To

  Femke

  Changes the sand, writes the note

  Rick

  Gives two raisins on Saturdays

  Mother

  Only one he sits still on

  Noa

  Six, whispers so he won't be scared

  Nacho15
  FemkeRickMotherNoa

  Nacho16

• 

  Nacho17

  One, About One, Two

  After Rick started slipping Nacho a second raisin, Femke said one was the rule. Rick said the vet had only ever said 'about one'. So now the drawer carries a note in Femke's handwriting, plain as anything. And still, on Saturdays, Nacho gets two. The note stays. The Saturdays stay. Nobody is fixing this.

  Nacho18
• 

  Nacho19

  On my mother's hand. With her he stays put.

  Nacho20

• 

  Nacho21

  The Hairdryer, Through the Door

  The hairdryer terrifies Nacho. Femke dries her hair in the bathroom now with the door shut, but he hears it anyway and sits in the corner for an hour. His fur is so dense he must never get wet, and somehow he knows it: he keeps away from the sink as if it were a cliff edge. The hairdryer is worse. He waits it out, every time.

  Nacho22
• 

  Nacho23

  The sink, kept at a distance.

  Nacho24

• Ten o'clock still comes. The shelf, the top shelf, three times, then quiet, and Rick still says he is laughing at them. The sand tray still isn't a bath. The curtain still has one hem left to check, every evening, the same corner, a sniff and a nibble, before he moves off to the other side.

  Nacho25
  

  Groningen, sixth floor, one raisin a day, about one.

  Nacho26

• This book was made for Nacho, from the words and photos of the people who love Nacho.

  bookofmypet.com