In grade school, they taught us...

...to read and write.  But in all reality, I think people have forgot how to read.

Now, if you go online and search for chinchilla for sale, or guinea pig for sale, or whatever for sale, even if you type in Indiana, or whatever state you're in, you may still get ads from other states.  If you go on a classified site, even if you are in your "Indiana" section or whatever, if you type in "chinchilla" and there are no chinchillas in Indiana, often the site will show you chinchilla ads elsewhere.  Craigslist does this too -- it will say something like "no ads in your local area" or something of the sort, and then it will show other ads, which are likely a bit out of your local area.

That all said... no one bothers to read the ads.  OR the locations.  I got an email last night saying someone came across an ad saying that we had guinea pigs available, and they wanted to know if we did.  Ok, fair enough, a lot of people don't take down ads until long after the animal is gone.  So I email back, saying yes, I have one female available, and attaching a pic.

Get an email back -- "can you please tell me the age and sex of this piggie?"  Really?  So I email back, and notice that the guy's signature contains New York.  Well, we're in Indiana, so....

He says he tried to call me but it didn't go through and asks if I can call him.  I first ask him if he's in New York, as we're in Indiana.  He ignores the question, gives me the phone number.  So I email again, asking the question --> "That's not going to work.  Thanks anyway.  No need to call."   No shit Sherlock.

What kills me, besides the fact that he couldn't even be bothered to read the ad to see what age/sex guinea pig we had available, and he didn't even listen to me when I told him what we had available -- was that he couldn't even be bothered to look at the location before calling.  If I'm looking at an ad for something, and the number isn't 219 or 708, I will look it up and see where I am calling.  Sure, some people have a cell phone with a different area code (I kept my 219 cell phone when I lived in 317) but the grand majority of people are dead on located in their area code.  219 is not New York, it's northwest Indiana.  And I even try to make it easy for these people!  All of my pet ads, with the exception of the first few paragraphs are identical.  When I'm writing up a new one, I pull up an old one and change the description of the pet and the adoption fee (if it changes).  The rest of the ad -- which mentions the adoption form, care packet, location, and so on, do not change.  They are identical from ad to ad, and I do things this way to ensure that I do NOT forget to put our location.  And just an example from one of our ads....

Regardless of past guinea pig experience, all potential homes will be asked to read our guinea pig care packet and fill out our adoption application/guinea pig questionnaire. If you are unwilling to do this, please do not waste our time or yours. No guinea pig will go to a new home without an adoption application being filled out - no exceptions.

This guinea pig is located in Munster, Indiana (zip code 46321).

The guinea pig is $30.

If you are interested in this guinea pig, would like to see additional pictures, or have any questions, please let us know. We also do have other rescues and critters up for adoption as well. You can email us or text/call 219-789-0026 for more information or if you have any questions. If you call and there is no answer, please leave a message and we will get back to you.

See?  Location given, complete with zip code so someone can mapquest it.  But see, people have to actually read.....

I was just telling someone... last year, this time of year, this was the busiest the rescue had been in awhile.  This year, it's just filled with uncompetent pet owners and idiots that can't read.