Moving and Adoptions

Ok, so I finally have a closing date on the house and am prepping to move.  Yay!!  So, been trying to get stuff ready.

Natalie is coming over today to help me clean the FNs so they can be moved with the rest of the stuff on Saturday, if possible.  Will be working on accomplishing that later tonight.

Had two people call about Carlos.  The first was an older lady who recently lost a chin (out of the pair of males she had) and was interested in Carlos.  In talking to her, we discovered he might be more of a baggage-laden chin than she wanted, so she's going to end up purchasing Gypsy's mosaic male.  The one that got a 2nd place at the show this past weekend.  She said she appreciated my honesty / candor about what type of a chin he was, as she said she'd had some not-so-great experiences with adopting critters that aren't really what the rescue said they were.  Yeah, that doesn't happen here.  So I emailed her the care packet, adoption form, and address, and she's set to be here next Wednesday to come adopt.

Then got an email, complete with adoption form (which only happens when the stars line up just perfectly), from someone wanting to adopt Carlos.  They have other males they want to intro him to, and if that doesn't work, they said they may have a sister who will take him, or bring him back, but fingers crossed it all works out.  They emailed yesterday, coming to adopt today.  They wanted to come yesterday, but I was busy digging through my stuff that needs to be packed and missed their phone call and email until it was late at night.

Now, I don't think everyone needs to be that fast.  And that person has just about everything they could need, chin-wise (and the correct stuff to boot), so that does make that person easier than the average adoption.  But note.... they were able to do everything in a day or two.

Versus... when I messaged that lady that had Carlos on hold for two weeks, and then I told her, ok, I can't hold him any longer.  Told her hey, just get me an adoption form, and we can re-start you getting a chin any time.  She was fine with that.  Few days later I put up the post that the large cage was up for offers, and she emailed and said, "well how about x for Carlos and the cage," and I said, "sure, but you gotta pick up within so many days because if I have to move him, he won't be on sale."  And she responded asking about food, and I answered her, and then nothing for several days.  Btw, somewhere in there, I did tell her, I can't put him on hold for her again without an adoption form completed.  Ok so then when I got the call from the lady, which was over this past weekend, I messaged the original person and let her know and asked her how the form was going.  Still, I have not heard back.  Not like it's been any long period of time, I acknowledge that, but she knows the chin isn't on hold for her, so the person coming tonight is going to go home with Carlos.  Simple as that.  And with the way this is going with this original person, I don't honestly anticipate seeing her take a chin home anytime soon.  And maybe I'm wrong, and I'm not above admitting when I'm wrong.  But just from experience, the people who drag their feet and take forever just to get the form back (and I don't mean the ones that live far and have to wait a few weekends for the weather to cooperate) tend to not adopt at all.  That's just what 11 years of doing this has shown to be true.

I have finally realized, its not my place to chase these people down.  They want to adopt, they will get me the form, they will keep in touch.  If not, there is no reason I should baby them and chase them down.  So, no more.

I had this one guy who'd emailed about adopting a beige female before this past weekend.  I told him, after show I might have some available, and the other day, I messaged him saying I now have the one beige female available.  Naturally, haven't heard back from that either.

I think, in running the rescue, the most frustrating thing to deal with is the people.  I like people, don't get me wrong.  But dealing with people is frustrating.  The people who actually turn out to adopt, I don't mind.  I'm happy to answer questions and help educate til I'm blue in the face.  And that's fine.  But the people who email, ask 40000 questions, and then either (a) fall off the face of the earth, (b) are adamant about feeding their chins raisins, (c) are planning to keep their chin outside year round, or (d) planning on keeping em in a fishtank.... those are the grand majority of people that I deal with.  They never end up adopting, either cause they never get back to me with an adoption form (which is probably about 75-80% of people), or if they do, its got such flaws, which they refuse to change, that they don't end up adopting anyway because I'm not going to let them leave with a chin.  That's about another 10% of people.  So out of every 100 emails/calls I get, I'm lucky if I get 10 adoptions.