I actually had hired help come in to help get my pile of cages down and to make houses and sand toy parts. Over about a total of 9-10 hours (over 2 days), we got a lot done. We also took my box pile, which has been threatening to fall over, and has fallen over, time and time again, and broke down all the boxes and arranged them.
And I tell ya, today when I went to put orders together, having those boxes in some semblance of order... omg SO much easier to find the sizes I needed. I'm going to have to start going to Meijer early mornings to pick up some more boxes, I'm getting low. Well, not low low, but I have a lot of HUGE and tiny boxes, and not so many mediums.
So I got maybe 8-10 orders out the door today. Have one order which involves a 12" wide, 36" width shelf to fit the back of a critter nation. Haven't tackled that one yet, but I believe I have the rest of the order ready to go. Probably could have done that one as well today, only I could barely carry all the boxes I had, much less an additional 3' long one. So I have that, then another smaller order, and then I have this one person who's had a cage on hold for eternity -- decided she wants it shipped. Hasn't gotten back to me with her zip (and I hate to be difficult, but I refuse to dig up her adoption papers to look for it, much easier for her to respond with it in an email), but when she does I will get that packaged up and ready to go. And that may be it for orders for the moment.
As for adoptions -- Melon went home, we had some rats go home, David went home, and now we have a few pets on hold. The person who adopted David is going to be coming back for a chinchilla (Chunk) and another guinea pig (Apollo). She's bringing a friend with her who wants to look at some of our cages. The person who adopted Melon is going to be coming back mid-month to adopt Joey (rabbit).
Was super busy today -- besides packing up all those orders and getting them sent out, I managed to spend the entire day either on the phone, with people, or sitting in front of the computer. Had a call in the morning about people wanting to come by and see cages. They came later, didn't get anything, but said they might be back. We'll see. Spent all day going through and responding to emails. Found out that the place that was supposed to bring wood to Nationals no longer can, so we're gonna have to get it mailed (they will pay for the postage -- awesome!). Arranged pickup of Apollo & Chunk, made arrangements so they can go together rather than one being picked up now and the other a month down the road. With incoming critters, I'd rather be flexible and let the animals go home now rather than wait a month. Hope that doesn't come back to bite me. Arranged for pickup of Joey. Arranged for pickup of our 17 week chin kit -- assuming the person gets their adoption form back to me. Getting some people to get back to me lately and actually answer questions/get back forms has been like trying to nail jello to a tree. Emailed everyone with their estimated dates for package arrival and tracking numbers. Emailed the most recent order to find out what egg they wanted (blue sparkly in the middle). Got responses (yay) from the two people on etsy I contacted about custom orders. The one will be sort of like nameplates for the cremated chins that we have. Would love to get those for every animal that's ever passed here, but money-wise, that's not do-able. The other one... I can't say what it is, cause I'm getting two of them, one being a gift for a friend.
Heard back from someone who'll be dropping off chins on Saturday. She got a chin, friend decided they didn't want their chin, which they said was a neutered male... yeah, lets say that was incorrect information. The two mated, had a baby. I asked about how these chins are caged, so that I could prepare the right amount of cages. Apparently the baby is still with mom because dad would hump him when he was put with dad. And the baby is... about four months old. Which means mom will be here at least four months. They said they didn't want to give up the chins until the baby was old enough to be moved... I think they may have confused gestation period with weaning time. Cause that baby is definitely old enough to have mom pregnant. So, they will be separated upon arrival. We will see if the baby (if it really is a boy.... at least 50% of chins coming in are sexed wrong) can get along with dad.
Finally read through all of the stuff for the high school career day. I won't bother to say what high school. About time I got to looking through things, considering it's Thursday. So, the first layout, they had NWICR between the other companies. They re-did the layout.... now I am like gobs away from everyone. See for yourself:
Before, I believe we were in position 15. Now... we are 26. Really? Not to sound a tad paranoid, but I'm betting either (1) someone complained about being next to an animal rescue, or (2) this is what happens when a school employee petitions administration to allow the rescue to bring animals... which they agree to, but then make sure it won't upset anyone by placing me far far away from anyone. Just my thoughts. I shouldn't complain, but I just feel like they couldn't possibly have stuck me further away from the group.
Anyway, I emailed them (I was nice! I didn't say a word about the layout) and asked how big of a table I have and if I have electrical access for a laptop. Waiting to hear back on that.
Oh, and I almost forgot. Yesterday I had told someone, who has been here several times before but has a problem with respect (for lack of a better word), that they could drop off some rats. Now, I have told this person SEVERAL times before that before they come, they need to contact me, and I need to actually respond to their contact. As in, if you call, and I don't answer, that doesn't mean come over. If you text, and I don't text back, that doesn't mean you come over. Two times ago, they called several times, I didn't answer, they showed up. The time after that, she didn't know what time she was going to come, and so she texted me at like 10 am, saying they were leaving. Well, I was asleep, I didn't hear the phone, but there she is, pounding at my door. Today, I wake up at 9:30 to the dog barking her head off cause someone is absolutely wailing on the door. From the pounding I was actually starting to hope that maybe a murderer was after her and she wanted to be let in. I mean, you'd never guess this is a pet dropoff. So I looked at my phone, and sure as shit, I have texts saying they're coming. As nicely as I could muster up, I texted that she woke me up, and she needed to give me a minute. And I told her, yet again, that she needs to wait to hear from me before she comes. Though clearly this all falls on deaf ears. So I let her in and got the rats and she left. Rather quickly, I'm betting because I was not in the greatest mood when yanked from nice peaceful sleep. I mean, initially, I thought, did I forget that I had someone coming? It's happened before, or I've overslept, but then I saw the text, and it was her. I tell you, next time, I'm not answering the door. She won't know if I'm home or not, and she's just gonna have to leave and come back at a scheduled time. This is ridiculous.
Which reminds me, I'm going to change the sales policy to reflect that pets need to be picked up within two weeks unless a deposit is down. No exceptions. And I need to add to the 5+2 day policy that if that person does happen to respond in the two days, they need to either put down a deposit or pick up the pet in a week, or its forfeited. I don't know if anyone remembers what the policy was, long before I had a blog, but it used to be 7 days, then they'd get an email, then they had another 7 days. Was I nuts or what? I didn't want to be mean. Well tough shit, I got walked all over, and now it's going to be a policy that is going to be intentionally strict. The people who really want the pets will have no problem with it. I have people coming from 2.5 hours away in a few days. They can make time. So I find it hard to believe that the people that are 20-30 minutes away can't steal away from whatever they're doing for long enough to stop by and want the pet on hold for umpteen weeks on end. Ooooh no. The policy's the same for everyone. We had someone come from Minnesota once. It was over an 8 hour drive for them. They actually drove up the night before and came here in the morning, then drove back. Now, I believe they did need to wait more than 2 weeks, but they had no problem with a deposit, and we had no problem with their pickup. If they can arrange to get us a deposit, and then find a time to make it here and back, in their busy schedules, then I expect no less from anyone else. If you really want the pet, you will find time to come.
I know there's probably some people reading this who are like, "but she made the exception for this person or this person." There are exceptions to the rule. Not just for the sales policy but for everything. I have someone who picks up supplies and asks if they can paypal me when they get home (which I let them). They always pay. There's another who picks up supplies and pays in installments. There's another person who actually has a running tab (well, currently they have a credit, but that's beside the point). There's a few people who can take animals before they finish their evaluation, and I will still honor the health guarantee [normally, pickups before eval. is done = no health guarantee]) Here's the thing though. These exceptions are made for people who I've typically known for years. Every once in awhile I'll get an email saying "well someone told me that you let this person pay later" or something like that. Yeah, cause I know them. I hate to break it to the general population, but if I've never met you... you're paying on pickup. The humane society isn't going to take $50 now and the other $50 later, they're going to say all of it now, cash/credit card/however, or no adoption.
And no checks. We don't take checks. That's another "big deal" here. I've had so many people tell me that I should be more flexible. I think I am. I can take cash, credit cards, paypal, money orders, just NO checks. I've even done partial trades, like if someone has a cage and wants to get a bigger one, they bring their cage, I'll take off some money off the bigger one because I now have the smaller one to use or sell. Flexible. I hate to (again) sound paranoid, but I feel like the people who are dying to write those checks.... are dying to bounce those checks. Why else? Seems everyone has a debit card nowadays, you don't need that check. Or go to the ATM... no, they want to write a check. Just seems suspicious to me. So no checks.
But flexibility, yes. I had someone, awhile back, they went and bought a bag of mazuri cause they knew that was what I feed. They had put a chin on hold right close to when it got here, so it wasn't switched to Mazuri yet. Well, when I tried to switch the chin, she got loose poos, so I switched her over to Oxbow. Well, the lady now had this bag of Mazuri that she paid like $10 for that she didn't still have the receipt for, cause she thought she was gonna feed it to the chin when she got it. Traded her $10 worth of toys/goodies for the bag. It didn't matter that 2.5 pounds of Mazuri is not worth $10 to me, it was what she paid at the petstore, and I didn't want it to go to waste. And I suppose, in every situation, I want people to feel like we can work with them if they have something we can use. To an extent of course.
I'm ending this rant here, with a few more sentences, but I have to say this -- I think that having stricter policies and not accepting checks is hardly not being flexible. I would love to find another rescue or another humane society or similar organization that will hold animals with no deposit, email reminders when people fall off the face of the earth, deal with taking to 5 year olds cause mommy doesn't want to talk to the rescue lady, and so on and so forth. A lot goes on here that causes me to bite my tongue. If some people knew what I really think of them, from a rescue standpoint based on how they treat their children/animals, I don't think they'd bother me nearly so often. Not to talk myself up, but I put up with a lot, and it's done to find the good homes among the sea of bad ones, so that these animals can get a second chance at life. I hate to say it, but you don't like the way I run my rescue? Find another one. The people who really want to adopt the pets and will really make good homes -- they don't have a problem with these sort of things.
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