Tired.

Just going to post something short before I call it a really early night.

Finished cutting the holes for the remaining hidey houses, motorhomes, and all that.  Put together two hidey houses, and almost finished a third, but it needs some work cause I used the wrong sides with the front and back.  Realized I had no dowels to attach the headlights and wheels to the chinny motorhome and chinny mobile, so I went to Meijer to get them.

But of course, couldn't just go to Meijer for that.  So, I try to not overspend rescue money, so my dad mentioned that cheerios were on sale, and now, I keep my cheerio (and other rat-food-related) coupons in my wallet so I have them with me should I find myself at Meijer.  So, I looked at all of those and so the cheerios were 2 for $5 for the medium box.  I figured out per ounce, it was 20 cents for the med. box (with the sale price) and 21 cents per ounce for the large, so I figured, I'd get some medium boxes.  So, I looked, I had three coupons for $1 off two boxes.  So, that should have been $15 for 6 boxes.  But, with my coupons it came down to $12.  But then!  I had a Meijer coupon for $1.50 off the purchase of four boxes.  So it brought it down to $10.50 for 6 boxes, which works out to 11-12 cents per ounce.  Awesome.  As I pause after typing that, I feel like I'm heading toward being on extreme couponing.  Lol.  But anyway, great deal.  Picked up those, a box of Total (had a 75c coupon), and picked up my dowels.

I'm tired, so I will be going to bed, but two things first.  One of our remaining 3 baby mice (the 9 week olds) went to his new home today.  She brought her rat, Reggie, here to see if they'd get along.  Which they did, so she decided to take him home.  Pic (sorry it's blurry -- normally I check the pic before people put the rat down, but apparently not today):

Second good thing of the day - Shimmy delivered!  A healthy 53 gram baby mosaic female.  

Aww look, Shimmy's smiling.

Still a bit wet... I always miss it by a little bit

pretty girl

Last time Shimmy had a kit, she had a white male.  The male hopped into the run and went into another female's cage... and died.  I don't know what happened to him -- I don't think Dreamz killed him, she's crabby but not murderous (most adults won't hurt a baby), I think maybe he just couldn't get back to Shimmy and died due to lack of milk and all that.  So usually I leave the run open for around 3 days after birth (for the possibility of breedback) and then close it.  Going to keep a super close eye on this girl, so we don't have a repeat of last time. 

Can't wait to see what she looks like as she gets older...  Nice white belly and cute markings.  :D

Cleaning day.

So, we were going to a play today, so I cut up the wood for some hidey houses and some chinny mobiles and mobile homes before getting ready.  Also mailed out some packages and mailed that person her care packet and adoption form. 

Went to the play, came home, and was thinking about not going back down to the pets/rescues and then I was reminded -- tomorrow is garbage day.  And far be it for me to be up early enough to do anything in the morning and get it put out on the curb, so I begrudgingly headed downstairs.  Don't get me wrong, I love the rescue but there's days when I wish there was someone else here so I could say, "ok, today's your turn" so I could just relax.  Cause today I really just wanted to lay down and go to bed.

So anyway, I was a good rescue mom and went downstairs.  Cleaned the rat stack, cleaned Keisa's cage, cleaned all the runs, vacuumed all of the FN's and vacuumed the entire floor including under the saws and, since my mom had just pointed out the ridiculous amount of sawdust that I had somehow tracked up the stairs to the main floor, I even dragged the shopvac up the basement stairs and vacuumed them all. 

Cleaned out the rat cage, moved mom & babies to a 20g, cause they were getting a bit cramped in their other cage.  It'll soon be time to separate them, and for them to start finding new homes.

So then, it was a tad bit messy, so I thought I'd clean up a bit.  I needed to empty the shopvac, but before doing that, I always look and see if there's anything large that needs to go in the trash (in this case, a mazuri bag) before stuffing shavings and all that in.  So, we have a cage that we're going to sell which we used, shortly, for rats. We're going to sell it, but before we do, the entire thing needs to be taken outside and scrubbed.  And that's coming from someone who feels that 95% of cages can be washed inside, but no, this needs to go outside.  Well anyway, it still had the shelves in it, wooden shelves, so those were absolutely disgusting cause rats pee everywhere, so those were just getting thrown away.  If it's chin pee that's soaked into a shelf, not so bad, it can be sanded off and made to smell normal again.  Rat pee?  Not so much.  So, I pulled all of the shelves out of the cage, made a pile of hardware and even removed the bolts (some say I save trash, I say there's nothing wrong with metal bolts & hardware except they're dirty and sticky -- nothing some vinegar, soap, and water won't clear up).  So, one of the shelves was too big to fit in the trash bag, so it's still sitting on the side.  I need to cut it in half with one of the saws, but it's late, so I couldn't do that tonight, so it'll go out with next week's garbage. 

Then, I realized that we have boxes for shipping things out in like 3 different locations.  So, some were alongside the stairs going down to the basement, so I moved those by where the other boxes are and scooted everything down.  Still have the cage or two that I need to wash and the carriers that need washing as well, I'll get to that eventually.  The pile is getting smaller. 

So, I brought up some trash and brought up some stuff to wash.  Realized I never gave the guinea pigs greens today cause I never moved the greens back downstairs.  So, went back down with my bag-o-greens to put in the fridge down there and gave the pigs greens.  Now that is devotion -- going back down at 2 am to give the pigs greens.  So then, I take more trash up here and realize... I don't remember if, when I was looking, the rats had water.  So, I head back down yet again, and they didn't have water, so I filled their water bottle. 

So I come back up to look at the stuff I'd brought up to clean.  Set all of the hardware in a cup filled with vinegar, soap, and water (mostly vinegar) and set it aside.  Cleaned everything else and went to look at the cup... yeah the water was like brown.  Ick.  So I started pulling out the hardware piece by piece and cleaning it.  Got through all but like 3 of the washers (which still had gunk on them, even with scrubbing) and the hanger bolts, which were all actually discolored.  So, those went back in a rinsed out cup with fresh vinegar, soap, and water.  Hopefully in the morning they'll be nice and clean.  Meanwhile, my hardware is spread our drying on a papertowel.

Oh, and all the chew toys I pulled out of that cage need to be cleaned.  But that's for another day.

Now that the runs are clean, maybe Shimmy and the other chin will decide it's a good time to have their babies?  Here's hoping.  And Lacey (gp) is also quite the plumper, can't wait to see if she has her babies and they turn out alright. 

Oh!  And I also had a pile of wood sitting on the one table saw that I was saving cause I knew it'd be good for some poo guards and stuff like that, so I went through a lot of that wood today making poo guards.  I finally attached the two halves of the corner shelf that's going to go in the one baby-safe-cage.  I cut the poo guards for that as well, but haven't gotten around to attaching them just quite yet.  Maybe tomorrow, we'll see.  

Had someone email me saying they wanted to pickup 20 pounds of food on Saturday.  Was going to bag that up, but... somehow that didn't end up happening between cleaning everything and all.  So, tomorrow. 

Well, I think that's it for tonight. 

Alrighty, so.

Today wasn't particularly an interesting day in the chin world.  Was busy most of the day with a family member's health issue, but when I got home...

Went through my emails.  Somehow I think the days I can't have my phone on me all day (like hospitals) is the day everyone emails all at once.  So I got home, had an email from one of our recent rat adoptions about how she'd needed to take the rats in to the vet and was asking for reimbursement (7 day health guarantee).  Responded to that.

Also had an email from someone asking about surrendering chins, two chins she said, so I emailed her back. 

Received payment for the one order on CnH.  It was a hidey house, two used water bottles, and a 20" shelf -- so I printed out her invoice and later packaged up her order.

Got another email from this one person who said she was interested in one of our x-dark eb babies.  She sent the adoption form, which looked good except for the fact that she marked that babies under 6 months could have treats.  They can't.  Or, well, they shouldn't.  It can slow their growth as they would be getting junk food calories versus nutrients and all that.  Well... in theory.  See, everything is ok in moderation.  But... so many people don't understand the concept that it's better to say, just don't give any treats until after 6 months.  So anyway, I told her bout that and told her she was set to get one of them.  Currently, the one weighs like 240 but the other only is like 170 or 180.... so I told her, depending on how quickly she wants to pick them up (which she won't be able to yet, but when they are ready), told her that if she wants on quicker, and they're both not yet 250 at the point they're ready, she will have to go with the bigger one, but if she is willing to wait a bit longer (which may not be longer at all, if the little one catches up in the next 1-2 weeks), then she can pick.  So we'll see what she says.  So far, no interest in the other x-dark.

Oh, yesterday, I posted more pics of the rats for adoption as well as more pics of the x-dark ebs.  Cuter pics, I think and updated.

Then I got an email from the rat rescue that we deal with, wanting to know if we could take in two chins.  Which we can, we have several empty cages right now.  So we'll see how that goes. 

So, I put together another order that we had, so I have those two packages to mail tomorrow, and then I have an envelope -- got the adoption form, care packet, and letter all put together and ready to mail to the person who wanted the form mailed to them.  I do hope I hear back.  We will see.

Oh, and I finally completed our donations box.  I was waiting for the paint on the letters to dry so they could be glued on.  So, I had several suggestion to stain it, but I purposely went and found a pine board that I felt was particularly vibrant in its striations (most true-to-life color in 2nd pic) so that there'd be a nicer look than just the normal flat-beige pine.  The hole on top is definitely big enough to stick a hand through, but I hinged the top anyway.  The blue on the letters is actually a turquoise blue, it's looking a bit off in the pics due to the flash.   

 

The rest of today....

So, the day didn't get any worse, thankfully.  Went to Joann's and picked up some wooden letters to spell out Donations on our donations box.  Already had the paint at home, a gorgeous turquoise, but I couldn't find my foam brush that I used to use with paint, so I found that Joann's had those for 39cents each.  Ok, so I could totally afford a new one.  So I painted those letters, and I painted the letters for the rat stack, the letters are drying at the moment.

I know I said before that the letters were going to stand up from the top of the house, but upon further thought, this house is going to be sitting on a table, likely at table-height, and people are going to be standing looking down.  So, it might be a tad hard to read with vertical letters.  So I think the letters are going to be simply glued directly to the top of the hidey house.  I'll post a pic of the donations box when it's all done, it's looking good so far.

So, I went down to give the guinea pigs their greens, and I noticed my fridge wouldn't close.  Turns out, the freezer part had iced up so bad that it was preventing the freezer door from closing, which prevented the fridge door from closing.  *sigh*  So I hauled all of the veggies upstairs and turned the fridge off so it can de-thaw.  And my genius self, I put a pan to catch the drips, but I forgot about it for a few hours, so now the stand that the fridge is sitting on (which is wood, might I add) is soaking wet, as the melted ice /water poured out of the pan and out of the fridge onto the stand.  So currently, the fridge is sitting on the floor so the icebox can totally dethaw and we can start this over.  I told my mom about this, and she mentioned that I had a problem with this in college, which is why we ended up buying me a larger fridge (which we do not currently have the room for by the rescue stuff... and I don't know where it is).  Well, having heard her said that, now I do remember that I always did have a problem with the fridge icing up and me having to dethaw it pretty regularly.  Ah well, still less of a pain than going upstairs every day several times a day to get the veggies.  I need to go check on that before I go to bed.

Oh, so last time I was at Munster Animal Hospital, I was looking at their decals.  Got one that said "peace love rescue" and so I thought that would be perfect for the fridge, so I bought that and took it home and put it on.  So here it is:

So, I packaged up everything for the order from CnH and PM'd her with her total for everything.  Shipping is not all that much less than the entire order, so we will see if she wants it after all.

Then, was going to get an order ready for someone who'd paid through the webstore, and I realized that I didn't know which toy they wanted (they bought one of the value packs, which comes with a toy), so I emailed them and asked them.  They got back to me right away, so I'll likely get that put together tomorrow.
Finished shelving cage 31 and posted it and the pic of it up on the website.  

Took some more pics of our 9 week old rats, as well as more pics of our x-dark eb chinchillas.  Put those up on the various ads and on our website.  And that's going to be it for today.  

...and people think WE are expensive.

So, found this on craigslist, just had to post about this.  Had several people tell me lately that $75 is much too much for a chin and our used cages are much too much for used cages.  Excuse me?  That same chin would cost $150 in the pet store, and cages start upwards of $100 there, and require that you ADD wood shelves.  Here, if the cage is $100, likely it already COMES with wood shelves.

Anyway, without further ado, I give you a craiglist ad.  Note how they say "ONLY" before the price:

For Sale, two females, sisters, born December 2008. They are both show/breeder chins, although we have not done either, because they have been spoiled and we just wanted to enjoy them.
Unfortunately we have to sell our sweet chins  I bought the girls from a breeder  for my daughter's b-day, but she just had a baby and is working and in college, and I am in nursing school, and we cannot give them the time and attention they deserve.

Lexi (black) will squeak when you try to pick her up but once you are holding her, she will nuzzle right up! Darla (Grey) loovvvvves to be held! They love to be played with and are very sweet!

When you buy the Chins, you will also get a three tier cage, timothy hay, treats, two running wheels, hay bin/feeder, treat bowl, pellets, house, litter box, cage cleaner, bath jar, bath dust, and a huge container of bedding (and container for bedding).

I will only sell them together. Chins are very social animals and should not be solo.

NO FUR FARMERS!!!! These Chins are pets, and I WILL NOT sell to a fur farmer!!!!!

PLEASE EMAIL OR TEXT ME FOR PICS... For some reason I can't upload the pics :(

Serious Inquiries only please

For additional info please contact [info removed]
Asking ONLY $650 o.b.o for 2 female Chins and everything mentioned above.
No reasonable offer refused!

 ....and we're expensive?  Right. 

People.

So, I got a call back from the person who I called about Psycho.  Of course, I was on the phone with someone else, when she called, so I called her back.  So she's interested, so I got her email... which sounded very familiar.  So, I looked it up in my email, and she popped up as someone who'd called me who'd been interested in Annabelle, but who had never returned a single one of my emails.  Couldn't be bothered apparently.  Anyway, despite my not-so-great mood today, I won't say anything bout that, I emailed her the care packet and adoption form.  If she gets those back to me and everything looks good, I suppose she can adopt.

So, the phone call that I was on when she called -- someone from Vincennes called, asking about breedable females.  So I told her, the only ones that can be bred are the ones that come with pedigrees, and at the moment, all we have is a mosaic female that's $175.  I explained that she's a baby, and she'd have to wait until the chin is about a year old, and she said that was fine, she could keep them in separate cages and all.  So I asked for her email so I could get her the forms.  Yeah, she "sorta doesn't have an email."  Really?  She clearly has internet cause she was able to see our ad or website (cause she clearly didn't see the cars driving around, not four hours away).  So I wrote down her address and I will be mailing her the care packet and adoption form. 

I have to say, I'm not particularly happy about that, as chances are, despite the fact that she said she will drive, and she asked how far it is, it's showing up for me as 4 hours and 49 minutes.... so I'm doubting that she's really going to want to spend almost 10 hours on the road, which means I will likely just be wasting my money (and my care packet, which costs a few dollars per booklet for me to get printed) to send to her, and likely won't get a chin purchase out of it.  I'm not sending her a return stamped envelope.  I had someone ask me to do that once -- they were here looking at chins and they wanted to mail the adoption form back (they weren't even far away, they could've dropped it off) -- and I hate to sound like an ass, but I felt like that was incredibly cheap of them, that they didn't want to spend their own 45cent stamp to mail back the adoption form.  I did give it to them because I didn't want to create a scene and tell her what I really thought about her request, but not a second time.  So this one will just get a letter sent with the stuff saying something along the lines of "please mail back to this address:...."

So then, I had the person interested in Posh email back.  I had sent her the two day email telling her that Posh was on hold for her, and I wanted to know if they wanted to continue that or what.  So I received an email saying they didn't think now was the best time to get a chin, but she thought her parents would prefer a male.  So I emailed her back asking if she wanted me to put her on our list for a male, and contact her when we got one in.  She emailed back saying yes, and saying that her parents didn't want to get a female cause they spray.  Now, I believe these are the people who, every time I said something, replied with "let me research that and get back to you."  I have no problem with people double checking info for correctness, but the way it was said, I felt that they acted as if they were just talking to someone who had no idea.  I believe they said that they had read online that females spray.  I had told them that the grand majority don't spray, but apparently, that didn't sink in.  Cause, you know, they read it online, so it must be true.  So when she emailed me saying the things about females spraying, I couldn't help myself and I responded back that we typically get in more females than males, and 95% of them do not spray.  But regardless, I'd put her down for a male.  I'm not saying I know everything, I admit that I don't, but I just feel that believing everything you read online over someone who's had a rescue for 9 years.... maybe not the most smart idea.  Anyway, I added her to the list, and then realized I don't know if she wanted any specific color, so I emailed her asking about that.

So far I think that's it for the idiots today.  But the day's still young.

Fun times...

So, yesterday, got a decent amount done.  Started shelving one of the cages that we have for sale, will soon be ready to sell that.  I think I now have most of our for-sale stuff off to the side and have pictures of all of it, but I do believe I have a few items left that I need to get pictured.  Still debating on which cages I'm keeping vs. selling, so there is that as well, but other than the cages, I think everything else is pretty much set.  Just gotta list those last few items. 

Finished grooming Nytro and Puff.  Still debating who's going to show, we will see. 

Meredith came over to volunteer and between the two of us, we got 9 hidey houses made, and more cut up and on their way to be ready to go.  I only have so many rubberbands, and the current ones are presently occupied holding together the hidey houses that are made, so on Wed. I can make more.  In the meantime, I cut up a LOT of pieces of the scrap wood that we have into pieces for use on our chew toys.  Started doing gallon ziploc bags, did two of those, and moved on to a paper Stracks bag.  That won't be filled anytime soon, but I don't want to use all my good gallon-size bags to hold cut up wood.  I did put a dent in the spare wood that we have lying around, so that's good.  I would like to have it all cut up, but that may have to wait until like the end of the day today cause there's just so much sawdust as a result of cutting up those little pieces.

So then, I was going through my emails, cause they were starting to pile up, and I realized it's been yet another 5 days since I had emailed the girl interested in Psycho.  I had sent her the adoption form and she had said Thanks, and I hadn't heard from her since.  So, I went on the website, updated the Communications part of our Sales Policy and emailed her letting her know that either she had to put down a deposit on the chin or she had to get her adoption form back and set up a pickup date within the next two days.  I told her, I didn't feel we were any closer to her adopting now than when she first emailed (which was about 2 weeks ago) and I told her, she hadn't even gotten the form back, so she hadn't been "okayed" to adopt yet, and all that.  I mean, I try to be nice, but at some point, I can't hold a chin indefinitely.  Like it's one thing for someone to set a date to pickup, and it to be in a few weeks.  Fine, because there is a date set, and the grand majority of people do show up for pickup.  No big deal.  And I don't start the countdown of the 5 days while I'm talking with someone.  Like if we're exchanging emails every few days, no worries, that can go on for months, and I'm ok with that.  But it's when they STOP contacting me that the 5 days start.  Like I send an email and I get nothing back, and of course, there's never a date set, and half the time I don't have their adoption form yet, and all that.  So I try to be nice, but there's gotta be some tough love.  I really believe that if they really want the chin, well, they will make an effort to come get it.  Maybe they can't come today, or tomorrow, or this week, but they can at least send an email within 5 days.  I would think most people who are really interested are wanting to set a date for pickup, as a lot of people are excited about pickup.

Anyway, so this morning I got an email from her, "Hi- Sorry I haven't gotten to you. I have been very busy lately. I don't really think that we will have enough time fir a chinchilla, so you can put her back up for adoption. Sorry. Thanks."

So, that's that.  I actually did have someone next on the list for this chin, so I called her and left a voicemail.  For people who I leave voicemails for, I give them usually 2-3 days for them to call me back (if they call back at all) before the chin goes up for adoption.  So, today's Tuesday.  If I don't hear from her by end of day Thursday, Psycho's going back up for adoption.  Which is incredibly frustrating.

Speaking of frustrating... I got an email yesterday about our mosaic female kit.  "Hello,Is your kit still available?  She is gorgeous.  What is her DOB and do you have pedigree paperwork on her? What pellet/hay is she eating and how is her temperament? Thank you,"  So, no problem, I send her an email with all of the information.  Get an email back today, the relevant part reads:

Your mosaic kit is so pretty. Here is where I'm at... Looking to get chin as family pet. As a child we've had cats, lizard, hamsters, family dog and bred dogs (Pomeranians), conures and an African grey parrot. Oops- not to leave out our current pet- a 4 yer old sweet and cute hermit crab. We've considered a dog many times but since I've not been around animals most of my adult life--- my allergies have one crazy. I've been visiting pet stores and handling chins just to test out the allergies. So far so good. The hay does concern me. Of course I want one now- so do the kids. But- we are thinking if having them earn it- doing research reports etc in preparation and then surprise them at holiday time. What will you have ready to go closer to Christmas?  I welcome your input. I wish you lived closer. The "trial program" is a great idea. Fantastic. Thanks again. And yes I'd do your paperwork.

 

Ok, first.  Why email about a current chin at all if you know you aren't going to be getting one now?  I have people who have emailed me and specifically said, hey I'm looking to adopt around Nov/Dec because of a move or something, so I know, even if I have what they're looking for, they can't take it til Nov/Dec.  But they don't start emailing asking all sorts of info on a current chin and then, "oh, well, we want it now, but maybe we should make the kids work for it."   How bout this..... you have the kids work for it and THEN you email a chinchilla breeder/rescue.  Isn't that the logical way this should be done?  I'm sure I come across bitchy regarding things like this, but you know, I didn't need to waste my time sending her an email telling her about the temperament and the pedigree and saying the lines she's from and all that.... when this specific chin probably won't be here around Christmas, which completely makes that entire email worthless.  

 

People frustrate me.

  

Pictures!

Tad bit overdue, but...

On the 21st, we had two rats go home.  A fawn-hooded female that was recently dropped off by someone who rescued and raised three rats... turned out one was a female, so he dropped it off here.  She was adopted out.  And the other rat adopted out *drumroll* was the fawn hooded male that's been here since May! YAAAAAAAAY!!  He is such a sweetie, and he totally went to an awesome home so I'm very happy for him.  And of course, his family is going to keep him separate from the girl.  The female rat they got is (hopefully) going to be cagemates with their current rat, Laffy Taffy (female), and they got the boy cause Mom wanted a rat of her own.  Aww.  The female is now named Lilly (nickname: Buttercup) and the male is named Lenny (nickname: Simon).

So then on the 22nd, our person with the $685 order came to pickup.  She was getting two cages (one huuuuuge one decked out with shelves everywhere, and a smaller one to put in the RV for when they go camping) and a ton of stuff.  So she came and got her cuties, Lilly's mosaic male and our extra dark ebony male.  I got a text from her this morning, said:

Morning, boys r doing well.  Seem to like my hay.  Put up their Bears hammock but they are asleep in their house right now.  They r prob worn out!  They loved running up and down the ramps for hours yest.... they're already bouncing up n down through the circular holes like pros!  Their cage is great wouldn't want one any smaller.  Will keep u in chinny updates, have a great day.

... as an aside, the cage had steel shelves and ramps, which were left in, and the shelves were worked around the existing shelves and ramps.  It actually looked neat, I should have taken a picture.  She has made covers for the existing steel shelves and ramps and is going to change them seasonally.  :D  

The large cage she got (which I was happy to see go!  It was taking up so much room) was 3 feet wide x 2 feet deep x 4 feet high (an extra 9 inches added to that cause it's on a rolling stand).  Very nice cage.  Similar dimensions to an FN, I suppose, but not quite as nice (though she gladly would have taken an FN off my hands haha).  

She named her new boys Max (x-dark eb) and Fritz (mosaic).  Apparently there's some kids story books about Max, Fritz, and Emma, these horses, and each story has a moral, or something like that.  She was telling me about a story how the horses came upon this skunk and no one liked the skunk, but the horses gave the skunk a chance, and formed their own opinion of him without listening to what everyone else said.  So, point being, she was naming the chins after some of those horses. 

And had to share this pic -- this was all the fur I got off of the chins while grooming.  The dust container is in the pic for size reference.

So, I was gone most of the day today, for various things.  Got home, called the person who had called me about the rats, she will be coming next weekend to check out our rats. 

One place that I was at today was Alsip Home & Nursery for their "pet days."  I don't know what it was called, really, but they had a little dog show, so of course Kailey had to go.  I realize this is totally not related to chins, but I'm posting it anyway.  So, she went up and did her tricks, and she got second place!  She could have done better, I think, I was working up to the "harder" tricks, but they cut us off and went to the next person.  But second place is still good!  (the person who won started out with tricks that Kailey can do, but we didn't get to)  So we got a frisbee, a bag of treats for her, some chew stick treat (which she promptly ate), and a $10 gift card to Alsip.  We used the $10 gift card to get her a bag of her roasted duck feet (which is like $12-13, so it was like $3).  She also got a medal.

Here's her wearing her medal and close-ups of her medal:

(the medal is really a dark silver in color, but this pic had to be taken without flash for the words to be readable)

So when I finally got home for the night, I cut up some more hidey houses, cut a few of the holes until the drill started heating up, and cut up some shelves for some cages I need to work on.  Was planning on going back down and keep working on that stuff, but I'm tired so I'm probably just going to end up going to bed. 

I listed some more cages on the Used Cages page.  Oh, and I checked our chins, Shimmy has gained even more weight, and I held her and definitely felt movement, so babies!!  Well, I kinda knew that, but ah well.  Joker... not so much.  Her belly still feels squishy (normal), rather than the firm way that pregnant chins feel.  On the other hand that 3 yr old female that we got in a few months ago is also gaining weight and is looking rounder.  We've had her since 6/14, and she's been gaining weight the entire time she's been here.  So, if she has a baby before approx. 10/4, that means she was pregnant when we got her.  After that, it means that Myshkin really took a liking to her right away.  We'll see.  And Lacey (guinea pig) is also totally pregnant.  She is so ROUND.  She hasn't had babies yet... well... she had once where she was all pregnant and then nothing... which means she likely had stillborns and ate them or hid the bodies, but I'm hoping for live ones this time.  Fingers crossed.

Show time!

Well, not quite.  But it is far past the time I should have started grooming the chins.  So, today, I got our Keisa, Gypsy, Myshkin, and Nytro for grooming.  Keisa did rather well, but decided to take a nice chomp out of me at the end for the final wiggle.  Gypsy.... was like a squirming baby, always the difficult one.  Barking the entire time of course.  Myshkin was pretty good, but literally grabbed the comb out of my hand (with his mouth) and winged it across the room.  Nytro was the pleasant gentleman that he always is.  I groomed him all the way through, but his fur's so dense, he needs a second go in a few days. 

Then, I thought I'd groom Lola.  Pulled her out, and her fur actually was wet, which had to be from Ally drooling all over her... as I'm pretty sure Lola can't actually soak herself.  So, got out the #3 comb and went to work.  I think I pulled out more matts and stuck fur than I left on the chin, but she does have some fur left.  She's just thinly furred right now.  But she does look worlds better, without all the matts.  I'll give her tonight to dry off and then tomorrow she can have a dust bath to perk her back up.

So, everyone got their dust baths (and I do mean everyone, not just the going-to-show chins).  Myshkin and Nytro were moved out of their runs to their own cages (so no one decides to lay on them and squish their fur), and I put the dust bath at the bottom... and they both just sat there like nothing was there.   Course, when I picked them up and literally placed them in the dust... oh THEN they knew what it was and began rolling around.  It was great, I don't think I'd even let go of Nytro before he'd started twisting and trying to roll over in my arms to dust.  It was cute. 

I started making my hidey-house-donation-box.  I actually made it smaller than our other hidey houses cause I don't need it huge.  Basically, it looks like our standard house on the front, but on both the left and right sides, there are large openings, and on the top (which is hinged), there is also a large opening.  The point of all those openings is to let in light so it doesn't look really dark inside when you look at it.  So, I bought some Lexan (plexiglass) to cover the front and side holes (on the inside), and I swear it looks perfectly see-through when you buy it, but then once you actually get it in... not so much.  Like if something is a centimeter behind the lexan, you can see it clearly.  Any further and it's like your vision just went bad.  It's like super-blurry.  And that's totally not what I was going for, so we're gonna call up Ace tomorrow and see if they still cut glass, and if they do, we're gonna get glass cut for the three sides.  If they don't... we're gonna find a place that cuts glass.

I think the 'Donations" will be stand-up letter, but I haven't decided yet.  We'll see.  That would require another trip to Joann's if I want to do it like that, as I'd have to get the letters.  If I do do the stand up letters, I think I'd have them all attached to a thin piece of wood, and have that piece hinged somehow so that it stands up with the hinge open, but with it closed, it lays down flat on the top of the house.  Cause otherwise I could see us cracking it off everytime. 

Well, other than that, didn't do much with the chins today.  Oh!  The $685 chin order-person came and picked up her chins and two cages today!  Yay.  Will post pics of that and other stuff tomorrow or in the morning or something.  

Had a call today about the baby rats.  Called them back, left a message, haven't heard back yet.  Will have to call again tomorrow.  

Today

Ok, so I can't say I accomplished toooo much today.

I did clean up the basement a bit, cleaned the guinea pig cages.  Put Pixie back in with Lacey and Truffles, and gave them a different hidey house to chew on while I scrub down their other one.

I moved one of the QC's onto the table it's going to stay on, and I put in the poo-guards.  Also added a wooden tube to that cage and a few more toys.  So that cage is almost done, except for the pan, which needs a good scrubbing.  *adds to tomorrow's list -- scrub cage pan*

Went through some more stuff that was sitting on the side waiting to be decided, for sale, not for sale.  Had two large "frog" type cages... one with a wrecked top that was taped to all hell.  Threw it away.  Well, destroyed it and threw it away so we don't get trash pickers opening our bags of shavings.  The other one, we're keeping.  Then, found two "cricket keepers."  Not like I really think we're going to get any more frogs, but if I'm keeping one of the larger "frog" cages, I sure better keep a cricket keeper.  But I took a pic of the other one so it will be up for sale.  Have lids for 10g tanks galore, so those are now behind the rolling food storage.

Oh!  A week or so ago, I don't know if anyone who's been here remembers, but my chin-food rolling container... if you lifted it up, a wheel would fall off.  Well, that was becoming an utter pain in the ass (especially now, with the redoing the setup, cause there are cords everywhere), and so I finally dug out the epoxy and glued the thing in place... it's fine now.  The question is... why did I wait like 5 years to glue it? 

Anyway, so I had on my list to make that halloween-colored blanket out of the same material that I used last year to make hammocks.  And see, if I make a list, I stick to it pretty decently, so...

....don't hate cause I have it and you don't.  I tried to find the fabric again last year, when everyone went nuts and wanted it, but apparently I wasn't the only one trying to hunt it down cause I never saw it again.  And sorry, but those of ya'll who knew I had more for the blanket and asked me to cut a 15" strip off of it to make more hammocks -- it's my blanket, shoo.

And this year, I did get one halloween print in fleece, but other than the one I got, they had black with orange polka dots and that was it.  Like nothing "pretty" like the one above, or like I had a nice one with skulls and spiderwebs last year.  There was like NO selection this year, and I was definitely there early enough.  This is what I got (will be up on the site and webstore tonight... but will take a few days for me to get around to sew em if someone wants).

I was on facebook today (as everyday) -- saw this and thought it was so "me."

Ok.  So I took pics of some more of the used stuff, going to work on getting that up on the site and the supply list tonight.  Also cleaned the cage that housed our hospice chins (er, chin now) and, as that's going to be "for sale" cage, moved Lola to a different cage and moved the other cage to the area where I'm working on the sale cages. 









Cleaned out the hamper that someone left here a bit ago, and put it by my "wash" pile.  Put all the fleece to-be-washed in it.  It looks organized now.  Well, that "section" of the to-be-washed pile, anyway.

Didn't get as much done as I'd like, cause I had to work on this weeks' project for class.  But tomorrow, here's hoping I get a tad more done.  Got an order from someone on CnH, so though I can't finish it quite yet, I can at least get started on it.

Had someone from CnH email me about a custom house a bit ago, and she wanted the hole 3" high on a house that was a total of 7" high.  Emailed her back and asked if she realized that meant the hole would be like at the very top of the piece of wood... never heard back.  So I'm gonna email her again and see what's up with that, if she still wants me to build the house or what.  She wanted a shipping quote, but I can't give an accurate one until I actually build the house, and I don't want to do it until she's positive about what she wants.

Then, I haven't heard back from the people who had been inquiring about Posh, and 5 days is tomorrow, Friday, so she will be getting an email asking where the status of all of this is.  Cause here's the thing.  If I have a zillion chins for adoption, I don't mind if one sits here for awhile, and I mind even less if I'm pretty positive that the person who it's on hold for is actually going to come get it.  But lately, what's been happening is that all these chins are on hold.. and then the person who has them on hold decides they can't get them, the people behind them in line all back out, and the chin's available to the general public again.  Which is fine, but in effect, it's like starting over, cause if I've had a lot of interest, I've likely taken down every ad except the one on my website, which I have to then put back up, AND, even though the chin has remained on my website, if people see it as "on hold" the majority of people are not going to email me and say "hey, if they don't get her, let me know."  In fact, almost 99% of the time, the way we get people as backups are that they ask about the chin BEFORE I've had a chance to put it on hold, and I tell them, hey, it's on hold, but I can let you know if they don't get it, which a lot of people agree to.  But anyone coming to the site would see, hey, no chins available, and would move on.  Which is just frustrating when people have a chin on hold for awhile and then don't get it.  If they have it on hold for awhile and get it, well, no harm no foul, cause all I had to do was feed it a little longer.   But when they don't get it, especially the ones that drag it out and drag it out and drag it out... ugh.

So then, I have someone coming tomorrow for our fawn female.  They expressed interest in our fawn hooded male as well, and are looking at another cage for him, so I have my fingers crossed that they get him.  He was so small when he came here and now he's a freakin cow.  He's just a big rat, he's not fat, just a regular male, but he's definitely grown to adult size while he's been here.  I hope they get him, he's been here since like May, so it'd be nice if he went to a loving home where he could get some additional attention.

Well, I think that might be it for today.  I'm gonna work on adding the used items where they go, adding the hammock, and balancing the chin account if my bank decides to cooperate. 

...and patience is lacking.

So, I let the next person on the list know about the mosaic female.  They had contacted me this past Saturday, not that long ago. 

Well, they responded saying they'd already gotten a mosaic male, but thanks for letting them know.  Well, I appreciate that they responded, cause some don't... but like... if you tell me you want to know if the chin doesn't get bought... do you think I'm going to email you back in 10 minutes?  I mean this is a rescue, not a pet store where anyone can walk in with money and walk out with a pet. 

Frustrating.

READ, people.

Ok, so I don't understand what is so difficult with people reading. 

So, emails (names have been removed):

Them:

I am very interested in this chinchilla, please get back to me for more details. How is it delivered/picked up and what all comes with pet? What is the final price? Thank you,

 

Me: 

 

Right now, this chinchilla is on hold for someone.  If you'd like, I can let you know if that person decides not to get her.  Let me know.  All of our chins come with 2 pounds of food, a baggie of chews, a hanging chew toy, and our booklet care packet.  As for how you get the chinchilla, you have to come here to pick her up.  We don't deliver and we don't meet people.  The final price is $175.  Let me know if you want me to let you know if the other home decides to not get her.

Them:

Hello again, Yes that would be great if you could let me know if the other person takes it or not. And where are you located again?

 

Me:

 

Alright, I will let you know either way.  We are located in Munster, IN.  

(so, the other person decides to not get the female, so I email this person again)

 

The other person decided not to get this chinchilla kit (the 10 week old mosaic female). I have marked down that you wanted to know if they didn't end up getting her, so I'm emailing you. Please let me know if you're still interested in getting her. If you are interested, there is a chinchilla care packet that you will need to read, as well as an adoption form you'll need to fill out. I can email those to you if you'd like. Let me know.  

Hope to hear from you soon. 

 

Them:

 

Yes i am still interested, where are you located so i can come take a look at the little fella? You can send the care packet and adoption form. Thank you!

 

Me:

We are in Munster, IN.  Our address is 10212 Devonshire Lane, Munster, IN  46321.  When would you like to come over and see her?  I've attached our care packet and adoption form to this email.  Once you get the adoption form back to me, I'll take a look at it, and if everything looks good, you'll be all set to take the chin home.  :)

 

Them:

 

Oh wow, I didn't realize you were so far. I live all the way down in Florida. I'm sorry. I don't know how I missed the fact you live in Indiana. You said you don't ship them? I don't know if that is even possible actually. Well if not then yah I obviously won't be able to come get her. :( Sad day. Thank you for your time and being kind enough to get back with me about the chinchilla!

I don't know how she missed the fact we live in Indiana either, because whether she saw the chin on the website or on a different ad, all of our ads specifically state "This chin is located in Munster, Indiana," and our Chins for Sale page specifies that all chins are in Munster, IN, unless otherwise specified.  AND I told her in a previous email, before this chin was even available to her, that we were in Munster, IN.  Guess she glossed over all of that.  

And this isn't an isolated incident, this happens all the time.  I realize if you search "chins for sale Florida" on the internet that likely, some results are not in Florida, but surely I'd think people could stop for a moment and, I dunno, READ the ad?  Or look at the website, maybe the "about us" page, if she missed it on the chins for sale page?  Must be too much to ask.

9/19/2012

So, got up today, and I had an email from the 2nd person in line for Delilah saying that they had ended up adopting the other chin.  So, I put her back up for adoption on our site and on PetFinder and the other websites we use.  Also put up the ad for our fawn female baby rat. 

Called up the person with the almost $700 order and set up an appt for this weekend.  So I'm happy about that.

Called up the person who was here last Friday asking about the white mosaic kit.  Well, they had said they'd call to put down a deposit or whatever, but I haven't heard from them.  So, rather than just move onto the next person (er, next two people), I figured, it's been 5 days.  Called them up, left a voicemail saying they have until Friday to get back to me.  If I don't hear from them by Friday, well, then I have two other people in line for the fluffball.

Mailed out the cage and shelves for this one guy who wanted them.... and so far, that's about it for today.

Picture Time!

Ok, so if anyone wonders how the new set-up is coming along (since May! I know....) I started taking pictures.  Now, these are NOT the pictures that will end up on our website. Those will be taken when the cages have freshly laundered liners, poos vacuumed, and so on and so forth.  These, I took 5 minutes ago, and the cages haven't been vacuumed since Monday morning.  But, here's a little sneak peek....

This is Winx.  He is my first chin, got him back in 2003, which makes him roughly 9 years old.  He is my baby.  He is in a Critter Nation 162, which he usually enjoys both levels of.  He is currently closed off in the top half, as we have some little escapees closed into the bottom half.  He got a pink cage totally by chance -- when the cage came in with the pink liners and 379203 broken bars (which have since been repaired with cold weld), we decided to repair and hang onto the cage rather than sell it, and the first chin who was ready for an upgrade was Winx.  Who knows, one of my adoptive homes said maybe he likes pink.  Maybe he does.  Normally, he gets to enjoy the company of non-psychotic male rescue chins, and for awhile he was living with the white kit shown in the cage pic. 

My "baby," Winx

Winx's CN

We then have Toby.  We got Toby and his half brother Bailey in 2006, from Randy and Jeri Jagielo up in Michigan.  Bailey has proven himself, but Toby has absolutely no interest in fathering another generation, which has earned him the title of "our gay male chin" (said with the utmost love, of course).  Toby was born in 2006, which makes him 6 years old.  Toby used to be paired up with Winx, but then I noticed that Winx wasn't acting himself and wasn't wanting to come out of the hidey house.  Upon pulling him out (this was awhile ago), we noticed that Toby had beaten him up pretty badly.  So, Toby is kept separate.  Toby has earned his pink zebra fleece and it totally fits him.  Christine (Twilight Chinchillas) is going to be making Toby a zebra-bed soon, will post pictures of that when I get around to it.  Bought some fleece today to make a second set of liners for this cage, so I don't have to run and wash the liners without anything to put down to replace them.

Toby (making sure I didn't get any pink in the picture)

Toby's FN

Toby's current fleece

Toby's second fleece set

... and then in the next FN over is Gypsy, our little devil-chin from the Lemlers at Chins by Design. I really do love her, but I may just be the only one, as she has sprayed probably 3 of our recent adoptive homes, unprovoked.  She is a pink white.  I seem to be missing her on our excel spreadsheet of chins *marks down note to add her* so I can't say exactly how old she is, but she's less than a year.  I'd bet between 6-8 months.  She has her own two-level FN, with beige/green/blue striped fleece.  Her spare liners will be beige with a floral pattern.

Gypsy, our little stinker

Gypsy's FN

Gypsy's current fleece.  It's not actually *that* dirty, she just dumps her bowl repeatedly.

Gypsy's to-be spare liners

Our next FN over from Gypsy is one of the rescue FN's.  It has blue tye-dye liners as the first set, and a set of bright blue liners as the second set.  This cage currently houses Psycho as well as a tan female on pregnancy watch.  Currently, the top pan is a cut-out, so these two chins can go from top to bottom, but we also own a second rectangular pan, should the need to split this cage arise.

the blue FN

tye-dye liner

med. blue liner (same color as underside of tye-dye liner)

...and finally, our last FN.  The one most recently done, and the one I decided that I wanted to have kind of a safari theme, so we ended up with two prints in this cage.  I know, I know, the blue cage above has like 6 different prints in it (cause of the various hammocks and accessories, which are all at least partially blue), but this FN is intentionally two patterns that are completely different and don't share color.  This FN inherited our double-decker hidey house from Toby's old cage, as well as our ridiculously-expensive Leo Braun wheel which Shiloh (our prairie dog) refuses to use.  This is one of our rescue cages, and currently houses Delilah.  This is another cage where we have a second top pan -- one without a cutout, should we need to split the cage to house more rescues.  We already have to sets of liners for this cage, a zebra print and a leopard print, but I saw colored zebra print at Joann's today and couldn't not get it.

our safari FN

two liner patterns - zebra and leopard

soon-to-be spare liner pattern

...someone I emailed these pics to already asked, so I will say -- to anyone who sees the orange plaid fabric in the back of that last picture and is hoping that pattern is going to be making a comeback, as it sold out in 3 days last year with a lot of people disappointed they weren't one of the lucky ones to snag one of those hammocks -- that's my fabric that's waiting to be made into a no-sew blanket.  Yeah, since last October.  I'm busy, k?  But it's going to be made before this Halloween, so I can get some use out of it.  Maybe tomorrow.

And here's Delilah in the FN -- 

 
We do have other chins -- we also have Myshkin (extreme mosaic - m), a still-unnamed 3 yr old standard female, Shimmy (std - f), Lilly (std- f), Dreamz (std - f), Bailey (mosaic - m), Nytro (black velvet - m), Joker (std - f), Puff (mosaic - f), Jessie (mosaic - f), and some other rescues, which are not pictured.  The point was to show the new cages, not rehash my entire "our chins" page.

...and our guinea pig cage is also going to be switched over to liners (if I ever get around to making them), with this nice fish pattern:

On that note, we don't have pig pictures on our website, and a lot of people have not seen our pigs, unless you've been here since spring of this year.  So... might as well post some pig pictures.  Their cage practically needs cleanings every 3 days so pardon the mess, it will be cleaned in the morning.

Lacey, our American shorthair female

Truffles, our abysinnian male

...and Pixie, out other American shorthair female.  She is currently still recovering from a spinal cord injury, so she is still separated from the others, but she will be joining them soon.

...and then, we got in another guinea pig yesterday at the rescue, named Chloe.  Well.... my mom wants to keep her, and usually at least one of our females is separated from our male, so if, after quarantine, she get along with our females, we may just have ourselves another pig (so our separated female will have a piggie buddy).  I tell you, this pig is hilarious.  Ok, so few things.  First, I gave her the "end" of the head of romaine... the part at the bottom where all the leaves attach.  The reason I gave that to her was cause last night, after we gave her some basil and carrots, she had wetter poo than I'd like, so I was thinking maybe she wasn't given much greens (or any) at the past home.  They didn't write greens on our surrender form, but it might just ask about what brand of pellets (as our most common surrender should be chins, which don't eat greens).  I'd have to look.  Anyway, so I didn't want to shock her system too badly, so I figured, ok, she'll just pick at the "butt" of the head of romaine (the way our other pigs would just pick off the tasty parts and leave the rest for me to remove later on).  Uh... yeah.  Bout that.  I went down this morning and it is gone.  Lol.  So, that further endears her to this family, as my other pigs are a tad stuck up and won't eat the stems of kale, or the stems of basil, and definitely not (heaven forbid) the butt of romaine, or the butt of any other type of leafy green.  So, if she's a piggie garbage disposal, I won't feel so bad cause I won't be throwing away uneaten parts of the greens. 

So, second thing.  I gave her some greens today, still not as much as the other pigs, and so I put them in her cage.  She is hilarious, I tell you.  She crept up to the greens as if she was trying to steal candy from the candy bowl, grabbed a piece, and hi-tailed it back into her igloo like someone was going to steal it from her.  Her previous home did say that she was in with another pig before that pig died... I wonder if that pig didn't share?  Lol.

Ok, so this pig is orange.  Well, technically, her color would be called "red," but she is orange.  Like a pumpkin pie with some whip cream on top.  So, if she does stay here, she's going to be named Pumpkin.

Pumpkin checking that the coast is clear before going out to snatch the romaine

Pumpkin literally (I shit you not) backing up to get back into her igloo with her piece of romaine

.... isn't she cute?  She's an American crested shorthair.  I realize her nails are long in the last pic -- that's how they look AFTER we trimmed them.  Don't want to traumatize them too much on the first day by cutting the quick. 

Our baby ratties are growing up.  New pics!

mis-marked variegated

black self

black berkshire

agouti self #1

agouti self #2

agouti berkshire

black hooded

black variegated

black split-capped #1

black split-capped #2

...and finally, a pic of our lone fawn self female.  Supposedly 6 weeks, but we don't have a b-day on her, and she's small.  She could very well be 6 weeks.  My idiotic camera wouldn't focus on her.  It wanted to focus on the ladder.  No, the cage bars!  No, the kitty ball!  So this is a hand-focused pic -- I am proud of this pic, I am apparently getting better at focusing.  I purposely purchased a DSLR that had auto-focus so that I wouldn't have to constantly be messing around with focusing on every picture, but I wanted to be able to turn that off as well, so I could get some of those crisp pics that are impossible to get with an auto-focus.  Love love love this pic.

how can you not love this face?!?

 Ok, and that's it for pictures today.  Time for bed.