Regarding the Waiting List to Bring in Chins

Hi again.

So, had a discussion today about the waiting list to bring chins into the rescue.  This person thought I was being unfair, so I explained to her why (she still didn't like it, but I can't help that).  Ok, so let me explain how it works.

Person contacts me wanting to bring in a chin.  They get put on a waiting list with their info, chin info, and the date that they contacted me.  Typically, the list goes in order.  You called first, your chin comes in first.  However, sometimes it doesn't.  That doesn't happen all the time, but it does happen. 

In this instance, someone who's closer to the top of the list was upset because they noticed, though they have not yet been called to bring their chin in, I have taken in multiple chins since telling them that they were close to the top of the list. 

All that said.  Here's the instances where a chin jumps the list, in order of priority:

• Another rescue needs to drop/transfer animals here.  Sometimes, other rescues get in an abundance of animals.  Sometimes, a rescue shuts down and the rest of us have to pick up the slack**.  Sometimes something drastic happens and they need to reduce numbers of animals.  Sometimes, we take in pulls from kill shelters.  We can't always help, because sometimes we really don't have the room, but the times we can, we do.  Because they would help if we needed.     
• Someone who has adopted a chin from NWI need to return the chin.  These people signed a contract saying that they will return the chin to us.  They do not have the option to go list it on craigslist or wherever else.  They are to bring it here.  Period.  Which means, we have to be able to take it in.   
• Something drastic is happening in someone's life.  For example, one chin that is currently here was on the list to come... more towards the middle-ish.  They were on the list for awhile.  I got an email saying that the people were forced to move and couldn't take the chin with.  They'd thought a spot would have opened up here prior, and wouldn't have come to this.  But it took longer than they thought and were stuck.  Chin came in.  Had another one, kid leaving for college, kid already lived by herself, couldn't take the chin, college was like... 3 days away.  Chin came here.

** A lot of times when rescues shut down, its not a planned thing.  It's typically more like one day they decide, "I'm done, this is it!  Animals need to all be gone tomorrow."  And it's a scramble.  So we do the best to make sure those critters end up in different rescues rather than in people's hands (who may not be the most educated about them). 

All this said, you may notice that chins are coming in when we say it's full.  A lot of times, when people want to bring in a chin and we have no room, that's no rescue cages.  Most people don't bring anything with their chins, which is fine, but because of that, I wait until I have rescue cages available to bring in a chin off the normal waiting list.  Since I breed, sometimes we have open runs and holding cages.  They're a lot smaller, but the chins do get moved into the rescue cages when they open up.  And in the meantime, for the people who have no choice but to drop off their chin, it is a cage. 

Just wanted to explain that.  Thanks.