First let us introduce you to the 4 J’s: Jim and Janice Barrett and their two sons Joseph and Jacob. We live in the small town of Ruffin, SC. Our secluded home was built in 1965 by the late Jack Cummings, father of Janice. In addition to the home and out buildings there are 30 acres filled with towering pines, flowering dogwoods, mature azaleas, natural creeks, and several acres of garden areas.

We relocated here in 1996 and with this wide spread and private plantation, plus our love and respect for all animals, we started adding on to our family of pets.  Our current pet family now consists of: two Beagles, a Yorkshire Terrier/Pekingese mix, a black Lab, a couple mixed  breed pups, a Patagonian Conure and our small herd of standard and mutation chinchillas.

Chinchillas became a part of our lives approximately ten years ago when our oldest son, Joseph, wanted a hamster. Not knowing anything about hamsters or other similar small caged pets, we started doing research on the internet and at pet shops. We found that there are many different types of small animals and then one day we discovered the chinchilla. There was something special about these critters that caught our attention. It was just hard to resist its cute face, little mouse like ears, and squirrel like tail. We searched for a reputable breeder over the internet and to our surprise there was one near our home. We made an appointment with Lowcountry Chinchillas to go see their herd of available chins. Of course, we had to have more than one so we purchased two brothers, a tan and an ebony. After that, like many breeders before us, we were hooked! Two soon became four and so forth and so on.

We had a perfect setup for chinchillas since we already had a large out building that was fully climate controlled with central heat and air. We placed the chinchillas into that building and what was going to be a hobby turned into a small business.

After we decided to go into breeding, showing was the obvious next move. Only being in the chinchilla show circuit for less than four years, we have received many awards including three Grand Show Championships. See our Awards page for more details.

Besides this exciting business our family also owns a private computer service business, Barrett Computers, which has been in full operation since 1993. See that website for details.