“I used to be a tomboy,” says Lisa Matthews. “My dad wanted a son, and since I was the oldest, I was the boy of the family before my brother was born.” All natural, with blonde hair, brown eyes and a wide, inviting smile, Lisa was raised a bit of a nomad. Having lived in Ohio, Illinois, Georgia, Florida and California by the time she was a senior in high school, Lisa turned to sports for a sense of belonging.

“Other girls wanted to be mothers when they grew up. Me, I wanted to be a jockey,” says Lisa. “I like sports a lot and I’m glad that my dad made me play them.” To call Matthews a tomboy is rather an understatement—she skis, plays baseball and football, and rides horses to wind down. Though she prefers her lifestyle to the girly alternative, she admits that being a tomboy has its downsides. “I don’t know why but no one asks me out on dates,” Lisa sadly says. “It’s really weird. I have a lot of guys who are my friends, and we go to lunch or we’ll see a movie together, but it’s not actually a date because they haven’t asked me out and I pay my own way.” Rather than get mad, Lisa decided to get even. She channeled all her energies into one goal—becoming a Playboy Playmate. An all-American woman, Lisa was a natural choice for us, and she won so many fans as Miss April 1990 that she stole the show as Playmate of the Year 1991.

Not bad for a self-described tomboy. As Playmate of the Year, Lisa was as much of a nomad as ever—when asked about her travels, she told us she’d recently been to New Jersey, Las Vegas, Hawaii and Italy, and showed no signs of slowing down. After an appearance in Bruce Willis’s Hudson Hawk and a round on Family Feud, Lisa went on to found Operation Playmate with Hef’s then-wife, Kimberly Conrad, writing letters to soldiers stationed overseas. “I don’t see anything special about the way I look,” says Lisa modestly. “I’m just the girl next door, Miss Natural.” Despite her reservations about dating, this every woman is every man’s dream girl—beautiful, natural, and most importantly, kind. “I don’t really care what men look like,” says Lisa. “I just want to date someone who’s fun. And I could only love an animal lover!” To win this PMOY’s heart, treat her to a dozen roses—her favorite are salmon-colored, meant to evoke desire—and whisk her away to a ranch, where she can ride horses to her heart’s content. “I really want a cow named Hank,” says Lisa frankly. “Cows are my favorite animals, and I think Hank is a good name for a cow, even if it is a girl.” Hank would be one lucky cow, but it’d be fitting for our happy-go-lucky Playmate of the Year 1991.

Lisa Matthews has a perfectly normal bedroom in the perfectly normal house she shares with her parents, her sister and her brother. The peach-and-green walls are hung with posters by Van Gogh and Matisse (not surprising choices, since Lisa hopes eventually to teach art history, at either high school or college level). Her skis stand in the corner near her favorite piece of furniture — her grandmother’s cedar chest. It’s a room like any other, with one small exception — an exception named Chester. As roommates go, Chester is ideal. He’s quiet, clean and friendly. When he and Lisa are alone in their room, Chester’s idea of a great time is to eat raisins out of Lisa’s mouth. Chester is a chinchilla. Lisa is the first to admit that a chinchilla is not a run-of-the-mill pet. But, as an animal lover, she already owned the usual animals – a dog and two cats – and when her boyfriend wanted to give her another pet two years ago, Lisa chose Chester.

It’s true that no one else in her suburban Los Angeles neighborhood has a pet chinchilla, but Lisa is used to being a little different. Her father was a corporate nomad, and the Matthews family was uprooted numerous times, from Peoria to Ohio to Chicago to Georgia to Ohio again, to L.A., to Florida and then back to L.A., just in time for Lisa to finish high school. Finally settled in one place, she began to blossom, making friends and finding success as a model at the age of 17. Now 20, she’s a student at a local junior college,thinking about her future. However her plans work out, there’s one thing she knows – Chester will be with her. “A chinchilla is a big rodent,” explains Lisa helpfully. “He has the body of a rabbit and the tail of a squirrel. He has mouse ears and kangaroo legs, and then big back feet and little front feet. He’s really cute. I talk to him.” The few people we’ve heard of who owned chinchillas had a lot of them and turned them into coats. Lisa’s brown eyes blaze when she’s asked if Chester will end up in the garmet industry with his relatives. “No!” she shouts. I do not like fur coats!” “You’re going to tell everyone that Chesters eats raisons out of my mouth, aren’t you?” she asks. “I mean, that sounds kind of gross, doesn’t it?” Nah, we tell her; everybody does it. “I could only love an animal lover, obviously,” says Lisa. “I’d like to have a ranch, maybe in Colorado. I’m going to have horses and I’m going to have dogs. And I’ll need plenty of room for Hank.” Hank? “I really want a cow named Hank. Cows are my favorite animals, and I think Hank is a good name for a cow, even if it is a girl.” What will Hank eat? Lisa eyes us sternly. “Not raisins,” she says, beginning to smile, “and not out of my mouth.”