Oh, hamsters... I had 6 of them as a kid, sequentially. All of them came to a bad end, often as a result of escaping from their cages (say what you will about their overall intelligence, but they are excellent escape artists).
As for chinchillas... we just saw our first one in a pet shop last weekend, and it was hiding from us. Poor thing, it did look like an overgrown mouse, and it was stuffed into the corner of the pet shop.
I would have taken it home, but I want to take every pet home.
