Cont.

So, went out to pick up the shredded paper, and they'd thrown it away.  Oops.  I didn't wait that long to go get it, but the lady said they were using the conference room for something and had nowhere else to put it.  Ah well, she says she'll call when they have more.

Cleaned up the basement a tad.  Weighed all the chins.   They were less than thrilled, but they all survived.  Shimmy's still gaining, Lacey (gp) is also gaining, and our 3 yr old standard chin is also gaining.  So we will see. 

So then we had a guinea pig dropped off in the evening.  A "red" (it's orange, the color is called "red") guinea pig with some white on one side and a white crest.  It's an American crested.  Cute, named Chloe.  People dropped off the pig, huge cage, carrier, hay, that kind of stuff.  Everything was in a huge laundry hamper, one of those plastic ones with the holes.  Which was cracked in quite a few places, so I pulled out the non-toxic epoxy, and patched what I could for day-1.  When I say we try to salvage everything, we really do.  So once those current patches dry, I'll be able to patch some more cracks.  That's for another day.

So then, I had this one person who had wanted to get a cage from us, and wanted the cage and shelves shipped to them.  So, I'm still waiting on the cage, but I cut their shelves today and sanded them and put in the bolts and all, so now once the cage comes, I can just put everything together and mail it out.

Also worked on getting everything ready for the $600 order.  Mainly, I needed to look at the two cages that this person was getting and shelve them.  The one I didn't add any shelves to, I just can't figure out how you'd add another one there, but the other one got like $50-60  worth of shelves.  It looks good. 

So then, that last FN, I put a few shelves in it, with poo-guards, vacuumed out the holes where the door posts go, and put the doors on... and it is done!   Yaaay. 

Somewhere in all of this, I also cut the wood up for probably 6-7 hidey houses.  Haven't cut out the circles yet or anything like that, but that'll maybe be tomorrow.  I had wanted to get the cages done before I cut out too many hidey houses, because I can always do the hidey houses later, but I'd rather have the chin pickups sooner. 

Cleaned up down there again. I know it seems like I'm always cleaning, but there is always something that needs to be done.  Now that the last FN is done, I think Delilah can be moved into that one and I can start poo-guarding the remaining two quality cages, and then move onto the few spare cages that we have left.  And amid everything else, I still need to eliminate the one long table down there, and I need to continue to list all of the used items.  Will get those eventually.  Considering I've been working on this "reset" since like May, I'm happy it's getting to be almost done.

Oh, also faxed over the exhibitor agreement for the St. Charles pet show.  I asked for the indemnification form, as I couldn't find the one I had for the Darien show, and was sent that.  Faxed that over as well, and now just waiting for a confirmation.  Once that's confirmed, we will be all set to go to the two shows.

Still need to make that donations box.

Had some interesting emails.  One was someone wanting to surrender 3 chins, and asking about our adoption and screening process.  So, I filled them in on that, but the interesting part was the last paragraph:

Lastly, if there are any shelters or zoos even in the Chicagoland area that you could recommend, that would be easiest for us to get them to a new home.

Ok, #1 - the zoos are not going to take chinchillas in from [what they consider to be] a random person.  Even if they could, I was just at Brookfield, and their chinchilla enclosure has one in it, and it's a decent amount of room for one, but is definitely not big enough for four. 

#2 - sadly, I cannot recommend any chicagoland shelters.  The stories I hear from my fellow rescue-owners are what keeps us all trying to pull our own species (for me, chins, for the rat rescue, rats, and so on) from the shelters.  The shelters have unfortunately degraded in the past years, so I wouldn't recommend them.  I did tell her, we have room.  I didn't specifically come out and say that the chins would get a lot more attention here, but I did point out that all of the shelters are cat/dog shelters primarily and those shelters don't even have time to take out all the dogs, much less the small animals. 

So, we'll see what happens.

Then, got another email --

We live in Pennsylvania. I saw your web site and love your chinchilla babies. The two ebony 8 week old females is what we are interested in. One of them.. ready first of October .. $250.  . . I'd love to have one of them if we could get her to us?? Is there a way?? Please let me know? Thank you, [name]

Oh, of course there's a way!  Let me just pack up my bags the first week of October and drive the 600ish miles to you.  That 22 hour round-trip won't cost more than the chin's worth in gas, no, of course not!  Not to mention, my time's not valuable at all, I have nothing better to do than to drive a chin from Indiana to Pennsylvania.

No, but really.  I told her (nicely, I swear), that unless she wanted to drive to Indiana, we can't get the chins to her.  I told her we don't ship, and even if we did, it'd cost more than the chinchilla itself.  Told her good luck finding some by her.  But shit, she doesn't need luck, there is a shitload of breeders in the NY/Pennsylvania/northeast-coast-state region.  She just has to look, that's all.

I think that's about it for today.  Have someone coming in the morning wanting to look at our hammocks and our toys, so I have to be up early for that.  Not that 10 am is early, but I've gotten into the habit of hitting snooze like 40 times and not getting up as early as I'd like.... and consequently, being up half the night because I started the day so late.

I need to call the $600-order person tomorrow and see when they want to pick up their chins and supplies.  I also need to get them a new total, as they've added things to the list since our last total.  Also, if I don't hear from the person who has Psycho on hold, I will be emailing her with a two-day notice.  I have other people waiting in line for Psycho, so we will see.  Tomorrow should, ideally, include more work on the hidey houses, more work organizing and getting cages ready for the new setup, and maybe even getting more used cages ready for sale.  We'll see what all gets done.